


I Wanna Be Myself

by maelstromdeparture



Series: Spirit of the Sea [9]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Fantasy, Mentioned ATEEZ Ensemble, Mentioned Bangtan Boys | BTS Ensemble, Mentioned EXO (EXO), Mentioned GOT7 (GOT7), Mentioned ITZY Ensemble, Mentioned NCT Ensemble, Mentioned SEVENTEEN Ensemble, Mentioned SHINee Ensemble, Mentioned TOMORROW X TOGETHER Ensemble, Mentioned TWICE Ensemble, Mermaids, Pirates, Prophecy, Sirens, Violence, i think that's everyone? - Freeform, that's not even all of them there are more, there's way too many people in this, this is absolute chaos you're welcome, yeah this'll be chaptered because i'm not doing that again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28497600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maelstromdeparture/pseuds/maelstromdeparture
Summary: The Levanter sails for Tortuga to face the next adventure as their triumph over the Lady Marietta fuels them onward. Friends and enemies alike await them in Tortuga and a dark threat lies on the horizon.
Series: Spirit of the Sea [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927246
Comments: 53
Kudos: 55





	1. i'm supposed to title these???

**Author's Note:**

> i'm back, y'all know the drill at this point 
> 
> WARNINGS!!!!!!!!!  
> -violence  
> -implied mentioned past abuse  
> -implied mentioned past rape  
> -this is exactly like the other fics in this series anything that's in their origin stories is implied or mentioned you know what you're getting into at this point :D  
> -oh wait! alcohol! talk of drinking and being drunk but no one's actually supposed to be drunk despite the implications of the first scene here. they're not drunk just tired. they're pirates having a party there had to be rum involved 
> 
> anyway enjoy! :D

The two months before they were meant to be in Tortuga were easy and happy, full of long days in the sun. Changbin taught Felix some slight of hand to help him be a better pickpocket. Seungmin and Jisung worked on teaching each other Spanish and French and then helping Felix with Korean as well. Minho and Jeongin spent a lot of time working on learning different new weapons and Hyunjin gleefully joined in when it came to learning how to use different projectile weapons. Everyone was happy and learning and life was good, despite the chaos being a pirate came with. Felix took to being a pirate quickly now that he felt the crew was trustworthy and Chan found he spent a lot of his free time talking to the younger Australian, teaching him navigation and sailing and learning different things about the quickest ways to incapacitate and enemy from the younger. But they were pirates and despite the freedom and adventure, danger loomed on the horizon perpetually drawing nearer as August drew closer. Chan couldn’t shake the strange feeling the thought of Tortuga gave him, but Jisung hadn’t had any visions about it yet so hopefully it would go well. The Saturday before Tortuga was supposed to happen the wind pulled harshly to the east and Chan spun the wheel around to follow it. The others started waking up slowly as the sun rose into the sky joining him on deck one by one. Changbin was the last to pull himself out of bed this particular morning and joined them on deck.

“Where are we going, hyung?” asked Jeongin realizing they were sailing in a purposeful direction this morning.

“East,” said Chan, “should be towards the Twilight and from there Tortuga.”

“Will we be there on time?” asked Seungmin curious. “If we’re detouring to meet up with the Twilight?”

“Of course,” said Chan nodding. “We have enough pirates after us I’m not about to put a target on our backs by making it look like we’re spies when we don’t show up.”

“We’re meeting with the Twilight?” asked Hyunjin perking up.

“You mentioned them to Ten-ssi back in India,” said Felix, “who’s the Twilight?”

“They’re friends, they gave us the book Seungmin’s been using to track the ports that the merchants like the Lady Marietta show up most frequently in,” said Jisung.

“And Jongho-ah is in their crew,” said Hyunjin brightly. “My friend I was telling you about who’s also a witch.”

“And Yeosang-hyung,” said Jeongin, “he’s half-siren and he’s really cool. Actually it’s probably good we’re meeting up with them soon. I’ve felt pretty weird lately, not bad, just weird and he can probably help.”

“But he’s not a merman he’s half-siren,” said Seungmin frowning.

“Yeah,” said Jeongin nodding, “but sirens are almost always a tropical variety of mer. Most of us are some variety of siren as well. Sirens are just tropical variety mer without tails, it’s not different just a mutation of magic.”

“Oh, you have magic then,” said Felix nodding and Jeongin hesitated a split second before nodding.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’m not strong, or very good at it. Theoretically it could get way stronger when I finish growing officially, but a lot of tropical mer don’t ever get very strong with magic. It’s actually directly related to if you’re a siren or not. Strong magic, like sirens have seems to mean they don’t have tails and having a tail means you’re magic isn’t nearly as strong as a siren would have. Yeosang-hyung’s magic is stronger than mine. Mine’s pretty useless honestly. I mean I’ve got like a tiny bit of persuasion when I sing but I’ve not needed it when I’m with you all so I’ve not used it and I. Well. Pirates hurt me in the first place to try and force me to use my magic to help them and I was pretty determined not to let them know I had any at all so it’s been a long time since I actually needed my persuasion. But I use my magic a lot day to day. Mostly it’s how I can tell where we are and how the ocean is. Outskirts of storms and when we near land that sort of stuff and like what’s beneath us in the ocean mostly if there are sharks or anything. But like also how it was dark around the Scarlet Lady and murky feeling at the India port before Whiplash set the Lady Marietta on fire.”

“What’s it feel like now?” asked Felix.

“Normal,” said Jeongin shaking his head. “Nothing strange at all.”

“That’s cool though,” said Jisung nodding. “Similar to Chan-hyung and the wind.” Jeongin nodded.

“Exactly,” he said, “but Chan-hyung has more magic than I do. Or I guess not more, but more magic that can be wielded as a tool. Most of my magic is in the ability to change from this form to my mer form.”

“I can’t believe you’ve been a Levanter pirate for almost a year and we’re only just now learning this,” complained Hyunjin dramatically draping himself against Jeongin’s back who immediately started complaining but did not move to try and get him off.

“I sorta thought you knew,” said Jeongin.

“Oh we knew you were magic, just not any kind of specifics,” said Minho not truly paying attention to the chaos, but still willing to take part.

“No one asked?” asked Jeongin surprised and got seven pairs of confused eyes on him.

“No. You were pretty adamant you weren’t magic when you woke up, Innie,” said Jisung shaking his head.

“If you’d rather not have anyone know you’re magic we were planning to play along as long as you want to keep it up,” said Changbin in agreement.

“Oh,” said Jeongin softly. “Right.”

“How soon do you think we’ll meet up with the Twilight?” asked Hyunjin looking back to Chan.

“Probably around afternoon,” said Chan shrugging, “but there’s no telling. I can’t tell if they’re moving towards us or away from us.”

“Did you ever figure out what it was, Hongjoong wanted to tell you about Ego?” asked Minho.

“I did not. We should probably ask before we get to Tortuga,” said Chan nodding. “Better to have as much information as possible before we get there.”

“You think Aucoin is still after us?” asked Seungmin cocking his head. “I wonder if he’s there. I’d like to see if his tongue healed split like that.”

“Aucoin? _The French captain? From Cupid’s Promise?_ ” asked Felix.

“Oh, yes. That’s where they found me,” said Jeongin.

“Right, that makes sense,” agreed Felix nodding. “Am I officially caught up on everyone that might want us dead?”

“I think so,” said Changbin, “I guess technically there’s the guy I was an apprentice for in Tortuga, but I don’t think he’ll actually try to kill us. He was just an asshole.”

“To be fair though, none of us knew Chan-hyung’s grandparents wanted to kill him,” said Jisung.

“I didn’t know they wanted to kill me,” said Chan shaking his head. “It’s probably taken care of now. I doubt there will be more problems with them when we go back in a year. She seemed pretty shaken about Felix.”

“Nice,” said Felix grinning. “I like being people’s nightmares. It’s fun.”

They came upon the Twilight in the late evening just before the sun fully set on the horizon. They were greeted by waving and yelling as they pulled up alongside the other ship, both ships dropping anchor.

“Heading to Tortuga too?!” yelled Hongjoong over the side of his own helm to the crew of the Levanter.

“Yeah! We were checking someone had told you! Whiplash didn’t know if anyone was looking for you to let you know!” called Chan.

“Whiplash?” asked Hongjoong. “Why did Whiplash tell you? How’d it go with the Crown kids? Fuck it, we’re coming over I’m not yelling this conversation.” Chan laughed and in the next few minutes both crews were gathered on the deck of the Levanter.

“Hey, you’re new!” declared Yunho looking at Felix.

“Yeah, this is Felix, he’s our last crewmate,” said Chan nodding, “picked him up helping the Crown boys. That went well by the way, I like them.”

“Yeah they were nice,” agreed Seungmin nodding.

“Oh good, their youngest was alright?” asked Hongjoong. “Are they really connected to Epiphany?”

“Yes, and yes,” said Chan nodding.

“This is our newest Wooyoung,” said Hongjoong gesturing to one of his crewmates. “Why would Whiplash tell you about Tortuga?”

“Chan-hyung’s friends with their captain and a lot of the others,” volunteered Hyunjin, “that’s how we know just about everyone actually. Chan-hyung sailed a lot before he started the Levanter.”

“We’ve mentioned sailing with Ego?” asked Jisung nodding. “Who told you about Tortuga?”

“Fearless,” said Seonghwa nodding. “Have you run into them yet?”

“I think they were in port the same time as us in Africa but we didn’t actually see them,” said Changbin shaking his head.

“There’s thirteen of them,” said Hongjoong, “they’re a little weird because almost half of them are ex-navy and then everyone else is a mixture of different backgrounds. But they’re willing to work with others as long as they aren’t being actively threatened. They have several enemies because of the whole ex-navy thing though. It’s stupid. Their Captain’s Seungcheol, first mate is Jeonghan, Seungcheol is ex-navey and Jeonghan was born to pirates, so you know an interesting dynamic.”

“I liked them,” said San nodding. “I had a great time.”

“You would probably get along well with them,” said Yunho nodding, “you sort of seem to collect people.”

“Were you in India recently?” asked Hongjoong.

“Yes we were,” said Minho grinning.

“You did it then? You got the Lady Marietta?” asked Seonghwa immediately perking up.

“Well, Whiplash blew up the actual ship, but we got the crew,” said Felix nodding. The deck quickly devolved into chaos from there briefly as the Twilight crew excitedly congratulated them and both crews carried on different conversations from there.

“Want to eat and drink with us?” asked Chan to Hongjoong, “we can head to Tortuga in the morning.”

“We won’t get there on time if we don’t sail through the night,” said Wooyoung worried.

“Chan-hyung’s got the wind on his side, Wooyoungie, we’ll get there with time to spare,” said Hongjoong shaking his head. “How do you think they’re all the way over here when they were just in India a couple months ago?”

“Oh, you’re magic like Jongho-yah, then,” said Wooyong nodding.

“Yes and no,” said Jongho, “Hyunjin is magic like I am, Chan-hyung is a different kind of magic but still magic.”

“And then there’s Jisung and Jeongin who are two entirely other kinds of magic,” said Seungmin.

“And Yeosang-hyung,” said Jeongin gesturing to the pirate next to him that he had been talking to.

“The point here is we will make it to Tortuga an entire day early if we’re going together,” said Chan talking over the group to be heard. “So are you wanting stay and have fun with us or not?”

“Well, anyone against it?” asked Hongjoong and silence echoed across the deck. “That sounds like a yes then, hyung.”

“Oh, I’ve got a fiddle if you want music,” volunteered San.

“You have a fiddle?” asked Seungmin immediately intrigued, Jisung also looked excited by the possibility of more than just voices for music.

“Hey that means dancing,” said Hyunjin brightly and Minho perked up at that too.

“We’ll go grab that and bring over some rum and food too,” said Hongjoong nodding the two crews scattered from there and reunited on the deck of the Levanter a few minutes later. They fell into easy comradery and spent several hours drinking and eating and dancing and singing along to San’s violin. Before long it was late into the night and everyone had somewhat drunkenly settled down into various conversations, Minho and Mingi are somewhat dancing together leaned against each other laughing between themselves and every once in awhile singing. Jisung is slumped into Chan’s side, Felix and Seonghwa laying on their backs on the deck next to them watching the sky but talking to each other. Hongjoong has Yunho on his other side as he sits talking with Chan and Jisung who’s mostly coherent despite being slumped into his captain. Changbin and Wooyoung are further down the deck sleeping beside each other, Jeongin and Yeosang sitting near them talking and San and Seungmin nearest the mast San’s fiddle lying forgotten at their feet.

“You’re not like the rest,” declared San peering at Seungmin, “not as much a stray. You’re like me, right?”

“No, I’m just as much a stray as everybody else,” said Seungmin shaking his head, “but if you’re asking if my dad’s a noble the answer’s yes. You too, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m technically a prince, you know? Not like inline for a throne or anything. I’ve got so so many relatives that would have to die first. But yeah, technically royalty,” said San nodding. “Me and Yunho ran off. Not together, well sorta together. Yunho was an apprentice and left behind his family and his master. I sorta knew him because we lived in the same place. And we’d talked a lot in passing because he was the only person in town that acted like I was a person, you know? Yeah. So he said he was leaving to be a pirate and I wanted to go too. Haven’t looked back. It’s nice like this. Love this. It’s free. Home. Rather be a pirate than a prince, you know? You know, Seungminnie? Am I making sense still? Aish, I didn’t think I drank much. My mother would be so so disappointed. Kinda makes me want to drink a little more.” Seungmin laughed at that.

“I didn’t run off,” he said shaking his head, “but I get it. It is free. Freedom is everything to people like us, yeah? I think that’s what makes us all get along so well, despite the difference in background. Maybe if we didn’t all crave it and chase it and find home out here we would hate each other. My dad would ring my neck if he knew I was friends with most of my brothers, muchless that I call them my brothers.” San squinted at Seungmin.

“You my friend. Are much too coherent for the amount of alcohol you’ve consumed,” he stated accusingly and Seungmin laughed. Further down the deck Chan stood up, supporting Jisung who listed sleepily into his side.

“Alright, it’s time for sleep. Hongjoong and crew are staying the night with us,” said Chan.

“Yay! Sleepover!” cheered Jeongin jumping to his feet and pulling Yeosang after him. Yeosang laughed and let Jeongin drag him towards the cabin.

“How are we fitting that many people in the room, hyung?” asked Felix blinking up at Chan.

“What’s a sleepover if there aren’t people on the floor?” asked Hongjoong curiously.

“Ooo fun, I want to sleep on the floor, hyung,” called San letting Seungmin pull him to his feet and lead him towards the cabin. The others slowly started to move that direction as well.

“Who wants to be on the floor?” asked Chan looking over the group and then shaking his head. “Actually. Felix, Seonghwa, Minho, and Jeongin get the bed. Everyone else, who wants to be on the floor?” Felix and Minho both started tugging off boots and weapons and crawled into the bed, Felix tugging Seonghwa after him and Jeongin rubbing his eyes and frowning at the bed but crawled into it beside Felix slotting against him immediately for cuddling.

“I wanted to sleep next to Yeosang-hyung,” he complained.

“We can fit him too,” said Minho waving Yeosang over who shrugged and took off his shoes and weapons and crawled over the four in the bed to wiggle his way in next to Jeongin. It was cramped but no one fell out.

“I’ll take the floor,” said Changbin nodding.

“Me too,” volunteered Hongjoong.

“I can too,” said San nodding. “That’s half the fun, right?”

“And me,” said Chan nodding.

“I’ll sleep on the floor too,” agreed Wooyoung.

“I want the hammock,” said Jisung.

“Absolutely not, window seat or floor, Ji,” said Chan shaking his head.

“Why not?” asked Jongho confused. “Is there something wrong with the hammock.”

“Last time he had a nightmare he fell out of it and concussed himself so he’s banned,” explained Hyunjin yawning. “I’ll take the hammock. Someone want to be with me?”

“Oh, dibs,” said Seungmin nodding and starting to ditch his shoes and weapons, placing them neatly against the wall. Hyunjin nodded and climbed into the hammock first and let Seungmin settle on top of him, the hammock easily holding both their weight.

“Someone can take the second hammock,” said Chan gesturing to the one they had recently set up so Changbin didn’t keep sleeping in the chair. “Or you can sleep in the chair, but it did give Changbin back issues after awhile.”

“I’ll take the window seat,” said Jisung tugging his boots off and flopping into it. “I can share too.”

“I’ll share with you,” said Jongho moving over to join him in the window seat. “Mingi-hyung will be too tall, he can have the hammock.”

“Works for me,” agreed Mingi nodding. Everyone settled in quickly and Chan started turning off the lights.

“Wait!” complained Jeongin loudly from the bed. “You didn’t say goodnight.” Chan sighed and started around the room, tossing blankets to the people on the floor from one of the chests before moving over to the bed.

“Okay, Innie, goodnight,” said Chan ruffling his hair. “Felix, goodnight. Touch?”

“Yes, night, hyung,” agreed Felix lifting his head slightly so Chan could ruffle his hair too.

“I demand a hug tonight,” announced Minho grinning at Chan who rolled his eyes and climbed over Seonghwa on the edge of the bed who laughed. Minho sat up slightly to give Chan a hug.

“Goodnight, Min,” said Chan pulling away. “Everyone in the bed, feeling okay?”

“All good, hyung,” said Jeongin nodding. “You can’t just not say goodnight like that. You messed with my routine.” Chan rolled his eyes.

“You don’t have a routine, Innie, you’re just a pest,” said Chan shaking his head but sounding fond.

“I have a routine!” called Jisung annoyed, “were you going to ignore me too?”

“Hey I want a goodnight,” agreed Hyunjin just to be involved which had everyone else piping up loudly.

“I want to be involved too,” said Yeosang laughing. “Can I have a goodnight. Hongjoong-hyung is never that affectionate.”

“Yah, what are you saying?” complained Hongjoong throwing his blanket at the bed and missing Yeosang completely. “I say goodnight every fucking night. You know I love you assholes.” The room devolved into laughter quickly.

“Okay, okay,” said Chan raising his voice to be heard and then ruffling Yeosang’s hair as well. “Goodnight, Yeosang. Seonghwa, do you want a goodnight?”

“Uh, no. Thank you though,” said Seonghwa. “I’d rather you didn’t touch my head. High five?”

“Sure,” agreed Chan nodding and giving him a high five when he offered a hand. “Goodnight, Seonghwa.” He crouched down and ruffled Changbin’s hair as well.

“Goodnight, Bin,” he said and then moved down the line of people on the floor who immediately started insisting they get goodnights as well. “Goodnight, Wooyoung, goodnight, San, goodnight, Hongjoong.”

“Oh, that is nice. Maybe I should do that,” said Hongjoong as he tugged San closer to share his blanket since he had sacrificed his own in an attempt to hit Yeosang with it. Chan turned to the window seat and ruffled Jongho’s hair when the younger grinned at him.

“Goodnight to you too,” he stated and then reached over him to reach Jisung and pinched his cheek. “Night, Jisungie.”

“Wait he gets his cheeks pinched?” asked Jongho confused, “but Jeongin-ah doesn’t?”

“I don’t like it,” offered Jeongin sounding sleepy.

“Jisung didn’t have cheeks when he and Chan-hyung found each other,” said Changbin half asleep from the floor. “It’s some kind of a safety thing. Don’t question it too hard. We’re all a little weird.”

“Mingi, do you want a goodnight?” asked Chan stopping by the closer hammock.

“Sure,” agreed Mingi nodding. Chan ruffled his hair as well and said goodnight before moving over to do the same for Seungmin. Hyunjin caught his hand when he reached to ruffled his hair and pulled him down planting a kiss firmly on Chan’s cheek.

“Night, hyung!” he said cheerfully as Chan yanked back laughing.

“Yah, Hwang Hyunjin, you fucker,” complained Chan wiping at his cheek. “You are an asshole.” Hyunjin laughed hard enough that he managed to knock both him and Seungmin to the floor which turned into pained groans.

“Alright, go to bed, idiots,” complained Chan as the two pulled themselves to their feet and climbed back into the hammock. He turned the light off all the way and settled down on the floor as well. It was silent for several minutes.

“Hey, Seungmin,” said Mingi out of nowhere.

“Mmm?” grunted Seungmin in response.

“What the hell happened to that tongue?”

“I’m sorry, did you say tongue?” asked Wooyoung.

“That tongue is taking up one of my medicine jars,” complained Hyunjin.

“I’m trying to pickle it,” said Seungmin, “it’s really fascinating. I’ll show you in the morning. Hey, Jisung, do you think we could pickle a toe or a finger?”

“Do not bring a toe on board my ship, Seungmin,” said Chan groaning.

“How about a finger? It’d be so interesting, hyung,” said Seungmin, “oh or maybe an eyeball. I wonder if I could preserve that. Hey, hyung, I want like an anatomy skeleton like for medical school. Oh and an astronomy chart and do you think we can find another bookshelf? I’m out of space and I want to get more while we’re in Tortuga.”

“Seungmin, I love you but for the love of god shut up,” complained Minho.

“Why did I agree to get you anatomy books?” complained Chan. “No you can’t have a finger or a skeleton. I do not want a corpse on my ship, Seungmin. You are not allowed to bring any other body parts aboard the Levanter until you’ve actually been successful with the tongue, okay? And then we can revisit this topic. Yes we can find a place for another bookshelf. Good luck finding any decent literature in Tortuga. Now go to sleep.”

“Sorry,” said Mingi, “I didn’t mean to set off a chain reaction.” The room fell quiet again.

“Okay, but where did the tongue come from?” asked Wooyoung.

“Go to sleep!” yelled Hongjoong, “you can ask them in the morning.” Finally silence truly fell over the cabin and sleep slowly began coming to each of them.

Morning came quickly and the two crews separated back out into their ships to race towards Tortuga. The normally loud lives of both crews escalated since they spent their time yelling back and forth between the two ships. By mid afternoon they caught up with a large ship heading the same way that ran up a pirate flag. The two slowed down next to it.

“Hello! Headed to the meeting?” called Chan leaning his elbows on the side of the ship. The crew seemed to be a mixture of nationality but mainly Korean as well.

“Yes!” called back the captain nodding. “You were moving quite quickly.”

“We’ll drag you along too, if you like, just ride in the slipstream,” said Chan nodding. Hongjoong leaned over the side of his own helm to peer at the ship.

“Seongcheol-hyung!” he yelled loudly waving and the captain startled slightly.

“Oh! Hongjoong-ah, you know this crew?” called Seongcheol.

“Yeah, this is Captain Bang and his crew, Captain Bang’s an old friend,” called Hongjoong, “you can trust them to pull you along in the wind too! If you’d rather not, we’ll see you in Tortuga in a couple more days.”

“How quick will you get there?” asked Seongcheol.

“By tonight at least,” said Chan nodding.

“Alright, we’ll join you,” agreed Seongcheol. “I’m Seongcheol, captain of the Fearless. If you’re friends of the Twilight you must be good, they’re rather picky.”

“Depends on your definition of good I suppose,” said Chan shrugging, “brace yourselves, it’ll knock you off your feet if you aren’t ready for it.” The wind picked back up around them and the two ships took off, Chan jerking the Fearless over so it picked up in their slipstream, sailing along behind them just as rapidly.

“Isn’t the Fearless the crew that almost caused Jisung-hyung to kill a man back in Africa?” asked Jeongin curiously watching the ship behind them.

“Yep,” agreed Jisung cheerfully. “My visions suck but sometimes they’re useful.” The sun was just setting on the horizon as they arrived at Tortuga. The dock was already full of ships and teaming with crews from around the world.

“That’s interesting,” said Minho gesturing to a large man of war ship at the far end of the dock, it looked like a Navy ship.

“Very odd,” agreed Chan nodding. “Try to stay away from anyone that seems like they might be a little too suspiciously British.” The three ships separate to find a place to dock and the Levanter crew runs through the normal procedures before heading to the dock below, making sure everyone had everything they needed.

“Alright, don’t go anywhere alone,” said Chan, “keep weapons on you, try to stay out of trouble, other than that, have fun.”

“Are we staying on the ship?” asked Felix.

“Yeah,” said Chan nodding. “Besides that the inns will be full, it’s safer on the Levanter anyway.” The Twilight crew came running towards them joining their group.

“Mind if we stick with you lot?” asked Hongjoong brightly.

“May as well, safety in numbers and all that,” said Chan nodding.

“So who’s trying to kill you all this time?” asked Yunho curiously as they started walking down the dock towards the town.

“Ah, well. You know, we did sort of blow up the Cupid’s Promise,” pointed out Chan shrugging. “So probably still Aucoin and whoever he’s gotten to believe him.”

“You sure do go big don’t you,” said Yunho shaking his head. “Imagine having a pirate like Aucoin wanting you dead.” Chan shrugged.

“I mean, he wasn’t that intimidating,” he said.

“I’d kind of like to run into him again actually. I want to see what happened with his tongue,” said Seungmin nodding.

“Yah, Hongjoong-ah, wait up!” called a voice behind them and the sixteen of them paused on the dock turning to wait for the bigger crew from the Fearless to join them.

“A bigger group of allies will be better,” explained Seongcheol nodding. “There’s no telling who all is here and technically no one has to be peaceful until the actual meeting.”

“You might want to pick a different group if you’re not wanting to attract attention,” offered Chan, “we may have pissed off Aucoin and he’ll be looking for us.”

“The French bastard? Good someone needed to do it,” said one of the other members of the Fearless.

“Yeah, the Levanter crew is going to attract a lot of attention,” said Hongjoong nodding. “Good and bad so if you’re wanting to keep under the radar it’d be better not to stick with us. We already decided we were going with them, but I definitely saw Crown’s ship in dock and they’d be happy to have another set of allies too I’m sure.”

“Yeah, Soobin and his kids could use a bigger group,” agreed Chan nodding, “but if you want to try your luck with us you’re welcome to.”

“It’s not like people don’t hate us already,” said Seungcheol shrugging. “We’ll stick with your group. I have to admit I’m curious about you all. Surely Hongjoong-ah told you many of us are ex-Navy.” Chan shrugged.

“You’re pirates now,” he said, “and technically Seungmin’s ex-Navy too.”

“British Navy, it sucked they were assholes, can’t say I’m sorry to have left,” said Seungmin shrugging. “Are we splitting up, hyung? I want to go to the bookstore.”

“Who else wants to go look for books?” asked Chan looking over the group.

“Personally I’d rather stick with a larger group,” said Minho grimacing.

“Yeah me too,” said Seonghwa nodding. Jeongin and Yeosang voiced their agreement quickly.

“I’ll go look for books,” said Hyunjin.

“We’ll go too,” said one of the Fearless pirates indicating the pirate next to him as well.

“Can’t say I like books all that much but I’ll go if Hyunjin is going,” said Jongho nodding.

“I want to go too,” announced Wooyoung, “you can explain the tongue thing. Why the hell are you trying to pickle a tongue?”

“Why not?” asked Seungmin shrugging. “Wanted to see if I could and Jisung very helpfully found me a tongue.”

“Technically I only gave it to you because Minho-hyung said he would throw me overboard if I gave it to him,” said Jisung shaking his head.

“Oh god do I need to reiterate that I do not want to be handed dismembered body parts?” asked Minho cringing slightly.

“I’d like to be added to the list of people not wanting to be gifted dismembered body parts,” said Jeongin.

“I’d like to be added to the list of people taking dismembered body parts,” said Felix grinning at Jisung. Chan tilted his head back to the sky looking like he was asking for patience.

“Felix, as much as we’re thrilled to have you joining in and support your assassiny tendencies. Please please don’t. I can only do one crew member trying to pickle body parts in medicine jars, okay? I’m going to have to ask that you pick another way to be a menace,” said Chan, “like the poisons. Let’s stick with collecting poisons, how’s that?”

“Not nearly as interesting,” said Felix rolling his eyes dramatically, “but acceptable. I can still help them figure out how long it could take someone to bleed out, right? And Jisung promised he’d let me help him skin someone sometime.”

“You taught him how to say that in Korean?” asked Changbin looking at Jisung who shrugged.

“That’s not even the worst. I also taught him as many swear words and torture terms in Spanish as I could think of,” said Jisung nodding.

“I signed up for piracy not to be a single father of maniacs,” complained Chan looking done already.

“This is mostly your fault, hyung,” said Changbin shrugging.

“I refuse to take the blame for all of them,” said Chan gesturing wildly. “I’ll claim Innie and Jinnie since they’re the good kids. And okay, yes I’ll admit that Jisung is probably my fault.”

“Hey, I thought I was a good kid,” complained Seungmin, “you offered to kill my dad for me.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s offered to help at least half of us hunt down and kill our parents,” pointed out Jisung.

“You’ve never offered to hunt someone down for me,” complained Hyunjin.

“You don’t have anyone to hunt down,” said Chan exasperated. “Do you want to pick someone randomly? You killed the guy that we could’ve hunted down for you on your way out of town.”

“Oh yeah that was fun,” said Hyunjin nodding. “That was the first time I ever shot anyone, very satisfying. Got to step over his body on my way out and everything. Wonder if his son’s okay. He better be, they killed my mom to keep him alive. I swear if he’s fucking dead I’ll bring him back and kill him myself.”

“You’re not a necromancer,” said Jongho shaking his head. “That’s not how that works.”

“Hey, maybe I want to be,” complained Hyunjin.

“That’s not how it works,” insisted Jongho.

“Oh so the stories about the Levanter are true. You all really are crazy,” said Seongcheol. Chan shrugged.

“Most of them are at least a little true I guess,” he said, “I don’t know. Technically there’s always a good reason.”

“Yeah,” said Jisung nodding. “It’s not like we’re killing people willy nilly.”

“ _Crazy, right? That’s what that meant?_ ” asked Felix looking to Chan eyes wide.

“ _Yeah,_ ” said Chan nodding. “ _Apparently we have a reputation of being wild savages._ ”

“ _Well, it’s not like we don’t live up to that,_ ” said Felix shrugging. “Sung, we’re getting food, right? Like in Africa?”

“Hell yes,” said Jisung brightening. “As much good food as we can find. It won’t be nearly as good as Africa because Tortuga’s food isn’t nearly as exciting, but there’s some good stuff we won’t find anywhere else.”

“Oh, oh shit, this is your first time in Tortuga,” muttered Chan eyes wide looking at Felix. “And it had to be with a giant meeting. Okay, do not wander off, I’m dead serious, Felix.”

“Got it, hyung, buddy system,” said Felix nodding.

“Haengbokkie?” asked one of the members of the Fearless crew hesitantly trying to move through his own crew to get closer to the younger crew. Felix’s head snapped up and around looking through the crowd confused and surprised. The Fearless pirate’s face lit up when he saw him.

“Hao? What?” asked one of the others confused.

“Haengbok-ah!” he said excitedly beaming brightly and Felix bolted towards him quickly.

“ _Oh my god! You’re okay,_ ” said Felix practically throwing himself into the older boy’s arms, the Fearless pirate hugging him tight and looking him over obviously trying to make sure he was alright, speaking rapid Chinese though he didn’t seem to expect Felix to understand what he was saying.

“Thank god you’re okay,” said the older pirate finally releasing Felix and looking him over. “Fuck, I thought for sure I’d never see you again. Do you know what happened to Lele? Is he okay too?”

“I don’t know,” said Felix shaking his head. “He was still there when they moved me to a different ship. My name’s Felix by the way. You are okay, right, Eight-hyung?”

“I’m okay,” said the boy nodding, “Minghao’s mine. The ship I was on wrecked and I managed to get out and to land. Hopped ships for awhile and found the Fearless. Junhui-ge’s from back home so I stuck with them.” He gestured to the other pirate that had called his name earlier concerned and had stuck close.

“How’d you get out?” asked Minghao fingers tugging Felix’s bandana up lightly to check his wrists for scars. “Not recently, right? You’re all healed up.”

“Just under a year,” said Felix nodding, “they healed fast because Hyunjin-ah is a healer. The Levanter found me on the Scarlet Lady, Minho-hyung shot the captain and Chan-hyung took me with them. They took me home too. I saw my mum, but at that point decided I was staying with them. We found the ship that kidnapped me and Minho-hyung in India a couple months back, I got to dismember the fucker that branded me.”

“Oh! This is one of the friends you told me about in Africa,” said Jisung realization crossing his face. “Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jisung, Felix’s twin.”

“His birthday’s the day before mine,” explained Felix nodding. “Hyung, hyung, this is my friend from before. Minghao-hyung, that’s my captain, Chan. Minho, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, Seungmin, and Jeongin.”

“I feel a lot better about them coming with us now actually,” muttered Minho nodding. “Hello. You’re like Felix, then?”

“Is that a problem?” asked the pirate with the longest hair from their crew.

“No,” said Minho shaking his head.

“Me and Minho both got pulled off slave ships too,” said Seonghwa hesitantly shaking his head.

“Ah! And you really hunted down the guy that kidnapped you? Fantastic. I’m Jeonghan, we’ve been looking for the crew that kidnapped Dino-yah too,” said Jeonghan gesturing to one of their crewmates. “I’m first mate, nice to make your acquaintance. You all seem like chaos and I like it.”

“I like to think we’re not that bad,” said Chan with a laugh, “it’s nice to meet you too.”

“You are that bad, hyung,” said Hongjoong shaking his head.

“Are we going to the bookstore or not?” asked Seungmin.

“Yeah, go ahead,” said Chan nodding and the group that had agreed to head to the bookstore peeled off from the rest of the group hurrying off into the streets. The rest of them head off to wander the more open stalls lining some of the streets, Jisung cheerfully dragging Felix and Minghao to try different foods, the pirate Minghao had introduced as Junhui stuck close by them. Chan decided he wasn’t going to worry as long as they stayed in eyesight. Jeongin opted to stick close to him and Minho seemed to have surrounded himself with the Twilight pirates while Hongjoong and Changbin both were talking to several of the Fearless pirates. Jeonghan and a pirate that had introduced himself as Joshua were both staying nearby talking to Chan and Jeongin, while their captain seemed to be keeping himself busy making sure no one got left behind. There was a yell from behind them and Chan turned just in time to see who was coming and push Jeongin into Jeonghan so he was out of the way before Chan landed with his back against the ground.

“Ow, BamBam,” he complained hands still coming up to hug the older boy tightly.

“Shut up I haven’t seen you in years I’m allowed to be excited,” said BamBam before sitting up and pulling Chan after him. “You’re okay, right? How are you? Where have you been? Did you and Jisungie find a ship? Were you in India recently? Jaehyun-ah said you were in India recently.”

“Jaehyun? Oh, TY-hyung’s Jaehyun. Yeah we were in India,” said Chan nodding and pushing BamBam off of him so he could get to his feet. “You’re friends with Whiplash?”

“Not really. But I’m friends with Jaehyun and so’s Yugyeom,” said BamBam nodding. “Where’s Jisung.” Jisung turned hearing his name from where he and the others were a little farther ahead.

“BamBam-hyung!” he yelled waving excitedly and hurrying over, pulling Felix after him. BamBam turned to hug him too.

“Hi,” said Jisung pulling back, “ _Lix, this is hyung’s brother._ ”

“Right, that’s Felix, Minho’s over there too and Changbin,” said Chan pointing out different crewmembers, “this is Jeongin-ah the youngest, and Seungmin and Hyunjin are off at the bookstore with some of the Twilight and some of the Fearless.”

“That makes, eight? Total?” asked BamBam, “that’s everyone, yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Chan nodding. “Eight total. How’re the others?”

“About what’s expected, yeah? Nothing particularly exciting has happened since we dropped you and Jisung off a few years back now,” said BamBam nodding. “We had an adventure involving sirens off shore of Canada, but that’s about it. Met some Norse pirates, they were interesting, they had good alcohol. I’m assuming the Lady Marietta, was you all then?”

“Yeah,” said Chan nodding and BamBam grinned.

“You all have quite some stories surrounding you then,” he said nodding, “Mark-hyung always said you were going to have some wild tales. You know I heard Aucoin’s looking for you all.”

“Oh he is,” agreed Chan nodding.

“What have you gotten yourself into?” asked BamBam rubbing Chan’s hair ruffly and Chan laughed and swatted him away.

“We may have stolen Innie from him,” said Chan shrugging, “and taken his first mate’s fingers, and split his tongue down the middle.”

“That would do it, wouldn’t it,” agreed BamBam nodding. “Did you brand a man and burn his tavern to the ground around him?”

“Yes, that’d be where we found Min,” said Chan gesturing to Minho.

“Did you steal a witch from some British port?” asked BamBam.

“Did I steal a witch? No, technically I didn’t steal him we broke him out and he came along,” said Chan shaking his head. BamBam laughed.

“Right, well Mark-hyung will want to check up on Jisungie, and JB-hyung will want to see you,” said BamBam, “come find us at some point this weekend, yeah? I need to get back to Yugyeom and the others.” He hugged Chan one last time before running off back the way he came.

“You’re not brothers,” said Jeonghan frowning as he looked at Chan.

“Biologically? No we’re not,” agreed Chan nodding, “but we grew up together.” 

“Ah, that’s cool,” said Jeonghan nodding. “Sometimes those bonds are most important. Your crew is pretty close too.” Chan nodded again.

“Yeah,” he said, “it’s never been about the piracy for us. The sea is freedom, everything else just comes along with it.”

The Twilight boys end up separating from them later on that night to go look for friends of theirs but the Fearless boys stick close, Chan suspects it’s mostly because Minghao and Felix are both still so excited to have found each other again. They were nice, a chaotic collection of personalities, and their captain seemed more stressed than Chan was on a day to day basis, but over all they were a good crew. The night with them is fun and they all manage to stick close to their crews as the tavern gets perpetually more crowded as the night goes on. Someone bumps into Chan’s shoulder from behind as he shifts to scan the group again, making sure all his boys are in sight. It’s the way Felix stiffens from where he’s sitting with Minghao that makes him concerned as Felix looks his direction but doesn’t make eye contact looking behind him, so Chan glances back. There’s a British crew that Chan doesn’t recognize at the table behind them and the captain’s just bumped shoulders with him and is now staring at him.

“Problem?” asked Chan raising an eyebrow at the man who just squints at him. He reeks of alcohol, not rum, something more expensive. Chan doesn’t recognize this man and can’t fathom why he would be getting scrutinized like that.

“ _You look awfully familiar. Have we fought before?_ ” asked the man and Chan rolled his eyes.

“ _I have no idea who you are, so if we have you were apparently a pointless battle,_ ” he said shrugging and turning back to the table. The British pirate grabs his shoulder and pulls on him. Felix pulls out one of his knives and Minho is on his feet in a second right at Chan’s shoulder, the other boys jumping up from their places around the table from there, but none of them moving closer without there being an actual need.

“ _I do know you. You fucker you stole my ship,_ ” said the British pirate shoving Chan harshly into the table his back hitting it, Chan too surprised to react.

“ _Hey!_ ” shouted Minho moving between them and shoving the man as hard as he could, sending him stumbling. “ _You are drunk. Fuck off._ ”

“ _I’m not drunk enough to forget the bastard that took the Lilith from me,_ ” hissed the British pirate, “ _I’m going to kill you for that. What sort of godless monster steals a man’s ship like that? The Lilith was my pride and joy. I worked years for that ship. She was my love and you stole her from me. Get between me and my revenge I dare you._ ”

“Min, he’s just an idiot, don’t get hurt over it,” said Chan softly tugging gently on Minho’s elbow to get himself between the pirate and Minho again. Minho went willingly, trusting that Chan knew what he was doing.

“ _Honestly, mate, yeah I stole my ship from some pedophilic bastard. I don’t remember if it was you or not. Definitely don’t remember the name of the ship. If it was you though, you deserved it. You tried to molest my first mate. My underage first mate,_ ” said Chan raising an eyebrow. “ _Last I checked. Even pirates try to follow that particular code. Seems like a sure fire way to get yourself on the wrong side of this meeting. You sure you want to own up to that?_ ”

“ _You don’t know what you’re talking about,_ ” insisted the British pirate stepping closer again. In response Hyunjin cocked his gun ready to take him out if he decided to cause more trouble or if any of his crew did, though his crew seemed mostly content to watch him drunkenly self destruct.

“ _Min, was right, you’re drunk and not thinking straight. Sit, eat with your crew. A couple days from now after the meeting when you’re sober come find me and I’m perfectly happy to give you a shot at your revenge, but carrying it out now will put your crew in danger and will only end in your death, because you’re drunk and my crew isn’t,_ ” stated Chan. This kicked the first mate into action, who immediately started trying to get his captain to sit back down and ignore it, not wanting the crew to be in danger because of the captain’s drunken rambles.

“ _That was my life’s work you stole,_ ” stated the captain angrily, “ _nothing will stop me from my revenge! You even changed my baby’s name. No longer is she the Lilith?_ ”

“ _She’s the Levanter,_ ” offered Jisung helpfully and this seemed to cut through the captain’s drunken haze.

“ _Ah. Hm. Perhaps I am mistaken. Have a good night,_ ” he stated quickly back pedaling and letting his first mate pull him away, the first mate looking very concerned. The two Korean crews watched them leave bemused.

“Well, you do have quite the reputation,” said Jeonghan idly.

“And he’s a coward. He was a coward the first time too,” said Chan shrugging and turning back around. “Ji, did you recognize him?”

“Not even a little,” said Jisung shaking his head.

“Oh, I did. He was a regular at the old place,” said Changbin nodding, “asshole too. Never liked him, but at least he wasn’t particularly violent just an arrogant coward of a drunk. You’d probably have had a real fight if he were sober. You probably did steal his ship though. He did have a tendency to hit on young pretty boys, so he probably did hit on Sung.”

“Made implications about slave trade too,” said Chan and then frowned. “Maybe we should go after him after all.”

“That’s probably why he ran so fast. Realized he’d said something along those lines to you in the past and then realized who you were and ran for it. Everyone knows the Levanter hunted down one of the biggest slavers in the seas and beheaded him with a dull axe,” said Jihoon cocking his head in thought. “It’d make sense he wanted to get far away from that kind of a crew.” Chan looked over at Changbin.

“You remember his face? So we can find him again later?” asked Chan and Changbin nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, we’ll see him, probably at the meeting,” he said.

“Okay, then someone follows him after to his ship and we just make sure he’s not taking part in the merchants dirty work, yeah?” asked Chan leaning back slightly as he talked eyes scanning the rest of the tavern clearly trying to make sure that they could catch any other surprises before they happened tonight. He smiled slightly and waved at someone as they walked in.

“The girls are here, huh, they grew?” said Chan and the eight of the Levanter crew members turned to look and Hyunjin perked up right away and waved smiling, before shifting so he was sitting in his chair on his knees and was taller.

“Noona!” he called and the group of girls turned to look and minutes later had invaded their space all talking at once over each other loudly. Chan did his best to introduce the Fearless crew to the crew of the Shadow while chaos descended on their table. It wasn’t much longer until their crews were kicked out of the tavern for annoying the other crews and the owner with their noise, none of the three of them minding much sense half the fun of spending a night early in Tortuga for a meeting was visiting all the different taverns. The Shadow girls made sure to introduce the five girls from Dalla that were with them, saying they were a new crew that they had taken as their sister crew how Epiphany had taken Crown. Before too long the girls had peeled off leaving the boys to themselves, off to find other friends and the group of boys headed through Tortuga to another tavern. The rest of the night continuing in a similar manner, ending with the two crews safely back aboard their ships for the night.

Jeongin’s up at the break of dawn and Chan finds himself waking up when he rolls over and realizes the youngest isn’t next to him. Jeongin’s at the helm leaned against one of the rails watching the sunrise when Chan finds him.

“Innie? You okay? It’s early,” said Chan joining him against the rail, Jeongin leans into his side immediately.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Kinda worried about the meeting this afternoon,” he explained. “I know that Yeosang-hyung and Jisung will both be there so it’s not like I’m the only one like me there, but still. I was on a lot of ships, hyung, and everyone’s going to be here for this. You’re not going to be able to keep quiet that you have a mermaid on your ship now. I’m scared.”

“Yeah, it might get mentioned,” said Chan nodding, “but you need to keep in mind. There are a lot of very tall tales surrounding us that no one’s sure if they’re true or not. The Levanter is an unknown with some wild stories, most of the smaller crews would rather not potentially get on the bad side of crew with stories as insane as the ones that they’re spreading about us. Besides, Hyunjiinnie and I already talked about it. Awhile ago now. Back right before we made it to India, he’d heard a couple stories where people were speculating about the blue haired crew member of the Levanter. You’ve been with him for a couple of our stops recently, you probably noticed.”

“What? That he’s not very worried about people knowing he’s a witch?” asked Jeongin confused. “I’ve been worried. He doesn’t have combative magic, hyung, what if he makes himself a target?”

“That’s the point,” said Chan nodding. “He didn’t want you to be the target, and after Whiplash told us about Tortuga he wanted to make sure that going into this meeting the crews would be more worried about the witch on board the Levanter and all the rumors than about the possible mermaid that a couple crews claim look like the younger member of the crew. They can’t prove you’re the same one if you don’t say you are and everyone will be a lot more worried about the witch that isn’t hiding that they’re a witch, because only the dangerous witches don’t fear being known. So Hyunjinnie and I talked about it and he was adamant he could take it and Jisung didn’t see anything involving Tortuga so I agreed that if he wanted to make himself a target then he could go ahead and we’d make sure to keep him protected. We might be a small crew compared to the Europeans but we can protect each other. Sticking together is going to be important. You’re not the only one facing ships that held them captive and I’m not the only one that’s going to be seeing ships they’ve worked on in the past as well. Minho and Felix are both going to be faced with pirates that had them on their ships, Jisung will probably have pirates he met while he was in Bahia de la Rosa, hell, Seungmin might run into people he’s worked with as well. You never know what British Navy sailors will suddenly turn pirate. The key here is going to be sticking together. Hyunjin knew he was one of the few of us that wasn’t going to have to worry about past interactions with crews so he made himself a target to take the heat off the others, you especially. No one will care about pirates claiming you’re a mermaid when there’s a witch with us. Besides once Aucoin starts raving no one else is going to want to own up to having had you on ship with them and we’ve dealt with Aucoin at his worst. He’s a shadow of his former glory at this point. You don’t need to be scared, we have you, Innie.”

“But now Hyunjin-hyung is a target,” said Jeongin, “that’s worse, hyung.” And Chan just smiled at him and ruffled his hair, the beads braided into it knocking against each other lightly.

“Hyunjin knows what he’s doing,” said Chan, “he’ll be just fine. Trust us, okay, Jeongin-ah?” Jeongin nodded slightly.

“Alright,” he said, “but you have to make sure Hyunjin-hyung’s okay. I won’t let him be hurt because he made himself a target to keep me safe.”

“Don’t forget that he’s got the Shadow girls and Ateez too. Hyunjin’s magic might not be combative, but both of their witches have combative magic and love Hyunjin-ah,” said Chan, “besides he’s got us backing him up. It’ll be okay, you’ve just got to trust that things will work out sometimes, yeah?”

“Morning!” yelled Jisung bounding out onto the deck, dragging a disgruntled Seungmin after him. “What are you two doing up so early?”

“Innie’s worried about the meeting,” said Chan, “we should wake the others and go find breakfast, want to eat in town or on the ship?”

“In town,” announced Seungmin, “fresh food is good for the body. Or as fresh as it gets here I suppose.”

“I’ll wake the others,” said Jeongin before running off to the cabin to start waking the rest of the crew.

“Were you really talking about the meeting?” asked Jisung curious.

“Yeah, Innie was worried about the crews he had been on ship with in the past,” said Chan, “so I told him about Hyunjin’s plan from a couple months back.”

“Right,” said Jisung nodding and Seungmin nodded as well, though Chan was sure that Seungmin hadn’t been outright told the plan. The youngest of the September boys was too smart for his own good, but the only reason they hadn’t talked about Hyunjin’s plan as a crew had been that there hadn’t been any real need and Hyunjin hadn’t wanted the others to have to worry about him making himself a target. It had been difficult enough to try and explain his plan to Chan the first time, and it wasn’t like the crew actually had any active part in it that they didn’t already do normally.

“All the crews will have shown up by now, yeah?” asked Seungmin, “meeting is at noon?”

“It starts at noon,” said Chan nodding, “if we’re out before the sun goes down, I’d be shocked.”

“Where’s it at?” asked Jisung looking over the ships in the dock, trying to spot new ones now.

“Actually, I think it’s the tavern we found Bin at,” said Chan frowning, “I’m not really sure though. It should be fine either way. On the off chance the tavern owner actually recognizes Changbinnie I highly doubt he’d actually try anything.”

“Will Changbin-hyung be okay though?” asked Seungmin concerned about his first friend on the Levanter.

“Yeah, we already talked about the possibility that the meeting could be at his old place,” said Chan and Jisung nodded in agreement, having had the same conversation with Changbin himself. The others start trickling out at that point and they organize themselves to head to shore. Felix claims one of Chan’s shoulders and sleepily peers over the group clearly trying to make sure they have everyone once the eight of them are on the dock. Minho looks equally sleepy but more coherent where he’s next to Hyunjin rubbing the sleep from his eyes blearily.

“Okay, let’s go find food,” announced Chan, “no splitting up, okay?” The other seven of them agree and they head off through town, moving slower than yesterday. They find food and claim an empty spot in one of the main roads, with markets stalls set up along either said where the eight of them sit down and eat. Felix finishes his fast and is practically sleeping on Chan’s shoulder within an hour, the others talking and laughing together as they ate.

“Hey, Chan-hyung!” called a familiar voice, “you made it!” The group turns and waves as the Whiplash boys join them settling around them making their group bigger and louder. It’s obviously not the entire crew but there are several that the majority of the crew has never met before.

“Hey, Mark, yeah we made it,” said Chan smiling at him, “you all on a specific mission or just food?”

“Just food, hyung,” said Haechan lifting up his own basket of food and then flopping down to the ground next to Seungmin, immediately engaging him in conversation. The other Whiplash boys follow suit and Chan nudges Felix awake slightly so he gets introduced to the boys he hasn’t met, Renjun, Jaemin, and Jisung are there from the Dream ship with Mark, Jisung claims a seat next to Jeongin eagerly asking him questions and if he liked the Levanter. It takes Jeongin a half a minute to realize that the other boy is the deep sea mer that he has vague memories of being involved in his rescue from the Cupid’s Promise. Jaehyun, Jungwoo, and Doyoung get introduced as well and the three of them express that they’re glad Chan’s finally found his place and his people and isn’t drifting from ship to ship anymore. WinWin and YangYang are the last to get introduced to the group, WinWin had been new the last time Chan had sailed with the Whiplash and YangYang was a crewmate he had never met before. He like Felix had numbers branded into his wrist but he didn’t wear anything to cover them and seemed unafraid of anything, likely because of the sheer number of hyungs he had that would protect him. Chenle hadn’t attempted to keep his covered either back when they rescued Jeongin, Chan hadn’t thought about it until just now. Minghao’s had been covered yesterday but he didn’t seem anywhere near as hesitant about showing them as Minho typically was, but he had mentioned his ship was sunk so he probably wasn’t too worried about being returned and their crew was quite large as well. The conversation with the Whiplash boys is easy and amicable and more then one crew passes them by and shoots a concerned look their way when they see the group of boys with black and green bandanas that mark them as Whiplash pirates surrounding the smaller crew that clearly wasn’t Whiplash but no one had attempted to intervene. Ten and another member of the crew that Chan had never met joined them followed shortly by Johnny and Xiaojun who all are happy to see the Levanter again and join the group on the ground, only adding to their size and number as the different stories surrounding the Levanter were brought up and debunked or explained by the eight boys who only just seemed to be realizing exactly how out of proportion the stories had gotten about them in the past few months. Yuta and a crewmate he introduces as Shotaro join the group next, and Hyunjin immediately pins Shotaro as a witch who looks taken aback and then excitedly joins Hyunjin on the ground, dragging Yuta with him to talk to Hyunjin about magic. He too has noncombative magic and is very excited to find another witch like him sailing with pirates.

“You’ve got a good group, Channie,” said Johnny smiling looking over the group talking to his members. “Shotaro really likes Hyunjin, he’s been pretty nervous so far you know? We found him and Sungchan on the Lady Marietta, back in Kochi.”

“Oh? Why Shotaro?” asked Chan surprised.

“No idea, but he doesn’t have a brand so they weren’t planning to sell him or at least not as a slave,” said Johnny shrugging, “you know what some pirates will do to have a witch in their crew. Especially the European ones, they can be pretty bad. The British not as much funnily enough, they’re awfully afraid of them.”

“One wanted to take Hyunjin so I don’t know about that,” said Chan shaking his head. “You found two with the Lady Marietta?”

“Two that stayed,” said Doyoung from the other side of Johnny. “Most of them didn’t want to stay and we’re a lot of things but we’ve never been in the business of forcing people to join us.”

“You being a prime example,” said Johnny nodding.

“Chan-hyung?” called someone from the edge of the street and Chan turned to look and smiled at the tall boys huddled together at the edge of the group clearly looking worried.

“Soobin-ah,” he called, “figured you lot would be here. You came with Epiphany, yeah?”

“Yes, hyung,” said Soobin nodding. “Um, are you okay?”

“Yes? Oh. Yeah. We’re good. We’ve been friends with the Whiplash crew since before we were the Levanter,” said Chan shrugging. “Ten-hyung’s first mate. Tennie-hyung, that’s Soobin-ah he’s the captain of Crown. They’re a small group they’re how we found Felix.”

“Right, connected to Epiphany,” said Jaehyun nodding. “Jungkook says you’re good kids.”

“Speaking, of we’re supposed to meet hyungs in three minutes, we need to hurry if they’re okay,” said Yeonjun to Soobin who nodded.

“Hyung’s right we do have to go. Nice to meet you, see you at the meeting,” he said before corralling his crew back into the crowded street off to find the older crew.

“Just the five of them?” asked Johnny glancing at Chan who nodded.

“Yeah, their maknae got kidnapped so we helped them get him back. They’ve got a lot of potential,” said Chan smiling slightly. Doyoung rolled his eyes.

“That look is why we have Haechan on board and Hyuckie is a menace,” said Doyoung which caused the group to laugh and Donghyuck didn’t even manage to look offended just offered Doyoung a finger heart in response.

“There’s Taeyong-hyung,” said Johnny distracting the group as he noticed more of their crew coming towards them. Chenle was with him and a boy that must be one of their newer members.

“Is there a reason everyone disappeared right before the meeting, oh Channie,” said Taeyong stopping himself midsentence when he realized the answer to his question was that his own crew had invaded Chan’s for the morning.

“Hi, hyung,” said Chan and then quickly introduced his crew.

“And Felix is our newest,” said Chan finishing up the introductions gesturing to the freckled boy still leaned into his side though he’s currently mid conversation with Haechan, though he looks up when Chan says his name and waves slightly at the Whiplash captain. The immediate frown that follows has both Taeyong and Chan visibly worried.

“Hey I know you,” he said looking at Chenle who turns away from where he’s talking to Sungchan to look at Felix, his face immediately lighting up.

“Oh! Hey you’re alive,” said Chenle brightly hurrying over and flopping down onto the ground next to him. “Your name’s Felix? Mine’s Chenle though everyone still calls me Lele a lot. You weren’t with Levanter when we helped them with Aucoin, so you’ve only been around like a year, yeah, hyung? You didn’t speak Korean last time, you’ve learned really fast. I’m glad you’re okay. I didn’t know what ship we were on and I didn’t know if you were still there either so I couldn’t try and find you after Taeyong-hyung found me. Did you end up on the same ship as Eight-ge?”

“No, but he is here,” said Felix excitedly leaning forward as he talked to Chenle. “I ended up on the Scarlett Lady. Chan-hyung helped the Crown kids find their maknae that the Scarlett Lady kidnapped so that’s how I got out. Eight-hyung’s with the Fearless, his name’s Minghao by the way. You’ll see him at the meeting, they were pretty cool. Oh my god that means you were in India doesn’t it? We missed each other. If you’d been with Ten-hyung and Mark-hyung we could have already had this conversation.”

“What! We were that close,” complained Chenle visibly wilting. “We’re staying in touch after this. I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“You were on the same ship?” asked Taeyong confused.

“Yeah, hyung,” said Chenle looking up. “From right before you all raided the Integrity.” Felix shuddered slightly at the name of the ship.

“They took it out then?” he asked and Chenle nodded.

“Oh yeah. Burned it to ash too, it’s really gone,” he said.

“Why was that ship important?” asked Chan frowning, needing to know if they needed to hunt down someone new now.

“The Integrity is where they sent the ones that caused problems,” said Chenle shrugging. “I might have tried to strangle one of the sailors. Came pretty close to killing him. Hey did he make it?”

“I have no idea,” said Felix shrugging, “I never saw him again personally? They shipped me off pretty quick after they took you.”

“You’re the one that tried to kill someone for Felix,” said Jisung nodding. “That’s cool.”

“Thanks? Yeah technically that was me?” said Chenle nodding. “It was worth it too.”

“Well, as much as I hate to cut this reunion short I did come collect you all,” said Taeyong shaking his head, “we need to make sure we have everyone and everything we need before the meeting. You two can catch back up tonight, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll come find you after the meeting, hyung,” said Chenle hugging Felix quickly and then standing up as the Whiplash crew quickly became a flurry of action as they said their goodbyes and then headed off down the street.

“Chan, a message once in awhile would be nice. Years without knowing if you’re alive or not is too much,” stated Taeyong nodding decisively before turning and following the rest of his crew down the street.

“Okay, he’s not nearly as scary as everyone makes him out to be,” said Felix watching him go. “I’m glad Lele’s okay. I was pretty sure they’d killed him for that.” Chan bumped Felix’s shoulder lightly with his own and smiled at him.

“You’ll get to hang out with him tonight too and can probably find the Fearless boys as well,” said Chan nodding, “but Taeyong-hyung’s got the right idea and we probably should head back to the Levanter and make sure we have everything we need and everything on ship ready to go in case we need to get out of here quick.” The other boys agreed readily and they made their way back through the town to the ocean.

By noon that day they found themselves in the crowd of other crews outside a tavern in one of the seediest parts of Tortuga. Each of them had their favored weapons in reach, or multiple in most cases, bandanas were tied firmly over heads and wrists and each black bandana signifying the Levanter status was in obvious view on each of them. There were a lot of crews from all over the world crammed into the street and Chan had noticed more than one of them had been eyeing different members of his crew. This meeting may end pretty quickly in bloodshed, despite that they weren’t supposed to fight by the code until after the meeting was over. The crowd parted slightly as it had been doing whenever bigger well known crews arrived so they could make their way to the front, no one wanting to end up in a fight with them and Hyunjin smirked slightly being the tallest of them and seeing the crew first.

“French headed our way,” he stated glancing over to Chan. Jeongin wiggled through the knot the eight of them had created so he was behind Jisung and had Felix on one side and Changbin on the other. Chan had made sure to get their crew backed up against the wall so that they didn’t have to worry about strangers being behind them.

“People are still avoiding them like this?” asked Seungmin surprised. “Thought people had decided he was crazy.”

“Well, it’s not like he’s actually hunting a ghost story,” pointed out Minho shrugging.

“Still.” The French crew was significantly smaller than the last time they had come across them, Aucoin just as gaudily dressed and his first mate at his shoulder, his hand wrapped completely in bandages. It takes Aucoin less than ten seconds to spot them and stop mid step, causing the rest of his crew to run into each other confusedly. The French captain pushed the brim of his large captain’s hat up dramatically and sneered at the eight of them before pointing at Chan.

“ _You,_ ” he declared in English and Chan smirked. “ _You stole my mermaid._ ”

“ _I did?_ ” asked Chan cocking his head. “ _I don’t recall doing that. I rather like to think I liberated a merman from your inhospitable care._ ”

“ _Thief, murderer,_ ” insisted Aucoin stumbling slightly over the words as he spoke. “ _Ship sinker._ ”

“ _And yet you’re still here. What sort of captain doesn’t go down with his ship?_ ” asked Chan rolling his eyes. “ _Speaking of how did you survive that? It exploded._ ”

“ _I’d rather see his tongue,_ ” said Seungmin piping up, “ _hey. Hey, French Bastard stick your tongue out. Did it heal cut like that? Is that why you’re struggling?_ ” Aucoin sneered at Seungmin who grinned and then stuck his own tongue out at him to taunt him.

“ _Kill that one first,_ ” stated Aucoin, “ _which one took my first mate’s fingers?_ ”

“ _Ooo! Ooo!_ ” said Jisung raising his hand and bouncing slightly. “ _That was me! Does that mean I get to kill him this time? Cause I shoulda killed him last time._ _Hey, maybe I’ll take your dick this time, huh? No more rape for you, asshat._ ”

“Must you instigate the pirates?” asked Chan rolling his eyes though he looked amused more than annoyed. Minho too was obviously fighting back a smile at Jisung’s declaration.

“That’s fitting though. Castration fits the crime,” said Minho smirking and looking to Chan who shrugged.

“ _Fine, okay, if they really want a fight you can castrate him, Sung,_ ” said Chan gesturing blasely at the first mate who looked a little less willing to fight now. “ _Not that I think you care, but you should probably consider that the code says no fighting til after the meeting. But if you want to have every one of the Alliances after your head, be my guest._ ” The crew looked slightly more hesitant but Aucoin just looked more furious and drew his sword.

“ _You owe me for my mermaid, Bang of the Levanter,_ ” he declared. “ _I will take whatever it is you sold it for as payment._ ”

“ _Then we don’t have a problem and you can continue on because we’re not really into selling people, mate,_ ” said Chan shaking his head. “ _You maybe heard we took the head of the last guy we came across that was? Want to join our collection, Aucion? We’re always willing to expand it. Seungmin’s been asking for fingers to pickle recently, I’m sure he’d be happy to have yours._ ” Seungmin grinned at that and even Chan had to admit that both Seungmin and Jisung looked a little deranged to be smiling despite the threats both had stated in the past minute. Aucion stopped looking confused and rapid French passed through the crew before he spoke again.

“ _What did you do if not sell him?_ ” he asked, “ _he has no magic and is quite worthless if not for selling._ ”

“ _What would I? A captain known for adding stray escapees to his crew have done with a liberated merman? Seems a stupid question. What do you think we did?_ ” asked Chan and Aucoin looked over the crew again baffled and his face changed when he caught sight of Jeongin who stiffened but didn’t let his face betray his fear.

“ _Even better. He can be returned to me as he’s rightfully mine,_ ” stated Aucoin, “ _hand him over now and there won’t be a problem._ ”

“ _The only way you’re taking any of my crew will be by force and you’re welcome to try,_ ” stated Chan pulling out his own sword. Aucoin stepped forward gesturing for the biggest member of his crew to follow him which he did.

“ _Henrik take the fish I will deal with the boy captain,_ ” stated Aucoin turning to Chan who ducked out of the way of the sword slash. Hyunjin who stood next to him pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at Aucoin’s hand in response. While the two of them dealt with Aucoin Seungmin and Minho had to deal with the first mate who joined to help and Henrik who was in all honesty quite a large man stepped forward to attempt and take Jeongin from the three surrounding him.

“ _This will go much simpler if you just give him to me,_ ” stated the man with a distinctly Scandinavian accent.

“ _I invite you to fucking try me,_ ” stated Felix stepping forward completely confident.

“ _You are quite small, I would hate to fight someone of your size,_ ” said Henrik and Felix shrugged.

“ _Then you should convince your captain to leave,_ ” stated Felix.

“ _That I cannot do,_ ” said Henrik shaking his head and reaching to grab Felix, pulling him closer to him, obviously planning to choke him. Felix grabbed the man’s wrist with both hands and swung his body up and over with all the momentum he could to take the large man down to the ground. The smack that sounded when Henrik hit the stone street was loud and had several of the other crew members skittering back slightly, not wanting to be involved in that. Felix bashed Henrik’s head into the stone quickly to knock him out and stood back up.

“ _What is going on over here!_ ” snapped a loud voice. A tall Asian pirate was walking towards them trailed by a handful of pirates from a variety of crews. They came out of the tavern. Chan recognized several of them though he didn’t personally know more than two of them.

“ _This crew took something of mine! I have been hunting them for over a year and they have not only shown their face but have the audacity to parade it in front of me,_ ” declared Aucoin stepping away and gesturing wildly as he spoke facing the pirates that were the strongest of the Alliances crews.

“ _Chan stole something from you._ The fuck, Channie, you’re stealing from infamous French pirates?” asked Jaebum baffled and looking at Chan.

“There’s quite a few more of you than there were last time,” said G Dragon looking over the eight of them curious.

“ _You know this crew, JB?_ ” asked one of the British captains surprised.

“ _Chan is one of my crew mate’s brothers,_ ” said Jaebum nodding. “ _He has sailed with a lot of us in the past. I can’t imagine he’s actually stolen something from Aucoin and he certainly didn’t start this fight._ ”

“ _You’re with Levanter?_ ” asked the first pirate that had spoken up. “ _Did you start the fight?_ ”

“ _No,_ ” said Chan shaking his head unconcerned about the potential disaster. “ _We did fight back though. And Felix might have killed that guy. Oi did you kill him?_ ”

“ _There would be a lot more blood if I killed him,_ ” said Felix blinking innocently at Chan. “ _Uh I think. I’ve never actually tried to kill someone by bashing their head into stone though so I don’t know?_ ”

“ _We don’t know if we killed him,_ ” said Chan turning back to the pirate.

“ _He stole invaluable treasure,_ ” insisted Aucoin. “ _And destroyed my ship and crew. Hundreds of lives lost._ ”

“ _Okay, technically we blew up his ship but that was ages ago now. And I wouldn’t say we stole from him. People aren’t treasure,_ ” said Chan scowling and crossing his arms. “ _If you make me give him back my youngest I’d rather have nothing to do with the Alliances and the sham of a code you all insist pirates are to live by._ ”

“Chan,” said Jaebum, “don’t get yourself in trouble. I don’t hold enough weight with the others to save you.”

“I hold a bit more though and I like him a lot,” stated G Dragon shrugging. “ _Ego will stand with Bang and take the Alliance with us._ ”

“ _Levanter has broken no rules of the meeting,_ ” said the first pirate shrugging. “ _Aucoin and his crew however will be leaving now as they have. Any objections?_ ” No one did though the French Alliance seemed irritated.

“ _What?! No! He stole my treasure! My greatest life’s treasure! He destroyed my ship!_ ” yelled Aucoin as his first mate and several of his other crew members grabbed him to get him away quickly dragging him back wanting to not have to fight the entirety of the international alliances at once. The pirate that had spoken first watched them go and then turned to Jaebum.

“They’re not JYP?” he asked.

“They don’t meet the year requirement yet,” said Jaebum, “we have dibs already.”

“Oi,” complained Chan, “you can’t call dibs. Besides why would I want to joint he alliance anyway, hyung? You know how much shit the Pirate King does that I can’t stand? I’m not really sure why joined.”

“Chan, you have to join an alliance. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t,” said Jaebum and Chan rolled his eyes.

“It’s a few years off still anyway,” said Chan, “We can have this argument again in a couple years.”

“If you don’t want JYP, BigHit will always take you,” said the first pirate turning back to Chan who’s visibly startled that one of the most intimidating pirate crews on the seas apparently approves of them. If this pirate is representing BigHit that means he’s Captain Kim Namjoon of the Epiphany.

“For fighting with a French idiot that’s mad I took a captive from him?” asked Chan baffled and Namjoon laughed.

“While I do approve of that particular interaction. BigHit is happy to have you off the word of Choi Soobin alone,” said Namjoon nodding. “Helping recover Kai from slavers was more than enough for you to be welcome to join us, and our year limit is shorter than JYP. Eight years not ten, think about it, yeah?”

“Huh,” said Chan softly still visibly confused.

“The meeting begins soon! Up to ten crew members will be allowed in at once,” announced Namjoon raising his voice to address the crowd and then repeating in English as the other pirates began announcing it in their own languages as well before heading back into the tavern.

“Did we miss anything?” asked Hongjoong as his crew emerged from the crowd next to the Levanter crew.

“BigHit just tried to recruit us to their alliance,” said Hyunjin turning to look at him.

“BigHit, really?” asked Hongjoong surprised.

“Like as in Epiphany?” asked Seonghwa, “wow. How’d you manage that?”

“I guess Crown likes us?” said Chan confused. “Their alliance doesn’t seem to work at all like JYP’s does or SM’s. I guess the actual Alliance Leaders aren’t here for this and just sent their strongest crews to be the leaders of the meeting.”

“Weird,” said San frowning.

“The Alliance shit has never made any sense to me,” complained Wooyoung.

“Did they limit who all could join the meeting?” asked Hongjoong as the crowd moved forward most of the crews trying to actively avoid being too close to the Levanter crew.

“Up to ten crew members,” said Chan, “so it doesn’t apply to us.”

“Ten crew members?” asked Soobin over the crowd as he led his group of five over to join them. “Ah, hello. You’re Twilight, right?”

“That’s us,” said Hongjoong nodding. “And Captain Choi’s right, Chan-hyung, ten seems like a lot?”

“I mean it’s a decent sized tavern especially if they cleared out all the usual tables,” said Changbin nodding, “it’ll be cramped though.”

“You can stay close to us, okay?” asked Soobin nodding, “both of you. Jungkook-hyung said he’d make sure we could be close to the front of the room so we could hear everything happening.”

“He’s going to be okay with that?” asked Hongjoon surprised.

“We already asked about Levanter,” said Yeonjun nodding. “Though we weren’t sure that Whiplash wouldn’t want you near them. They’ll be up pretty close to the SM one right?”

“Well they’ll have Eve up there too,” pointed out Chan shrugging. “It’ll be crowded besides as much as I like TY-hyung they’re not the sort of attention we need at a meeting like this. We have more than enough people after our heads.”

“ _Captain Bang!_ ” called a pirate and Chan turned to look and frowned not recognizing the Spanish pirate calling his name.

“ _What?_ ” he asked.

“ _You will stand with my crew, yes? We will be right up front if you do,_ ” he called. “ _Our Alliance is quite prominent and happy to meet you._ ”

“ _Thanks but we’ve already agreed to be near BigHit,_ ” said Chan gesturing to Soobin who frowned.

“You know that crew?” he asked. “They’re part of the main Spanish Alliance and are pretty big.”

“I have no idea,” said Chan shrugging.

“I think he gave us that notebook that’s how we found Innie,” said Jisung frowning. “He’s still weird. I don’t see his witch with him.”

“Might not have him with them anymore,” said Hyunjin shrugging. “Most crews that take witches don’t hold onto them very fast. The minute bad trouble hits or they can’t do something they’re asked to they’re thrown overboard for being bad luck.”

“Oh, that’s why Hoseok-hyung tries to keep track of which crews have witches on board and which ones don’t,” said Beomgyu, “hey, do you have one? There’ve been a lot of rumors lately that you do.”

“Yeah, so?” asked Hyunjin cocking his head.

“Just so we can confirm for hyung later,” said Beomgyu nodding. “You, right? You’re probably the least risked witch in the ocean though. I’m pretty sure Levanter is the crew least likely to give in to the idea of anyone being bad luck.”

“You’re right,” said Chan nodding. “It’s ridiculous.” The three crews fell quiet then as they finally reached the door and stepped in after each other, Crown leading the way through the crowd over towards the Epiphany crew. The JYP Alliance is stood next to them and Sana smiles at both Hyunjin and Jongho waving a hello to the other two witches who beam at her happily. The three younger crews end up between the two Alliances, Crown next to Epiphany and Levanter between Twilight and Dalla. BamBam turns around to look for them and beams when he finds them nudging Mark and Yugyeom to get them to turn around and say hello. SM is on the other side of JYP and is crowded into the space, Taeyong already looks ready to be done with the entire meeting and Eve next to them doesn’t look any happier to be there.

“Chan-hyung,” said Soobin touching Chan’s shoulder to get his attention and Chan turns to look the rest of the crew’s attention shifting as well.

“Jungkook-hyung, this is Chan-hyung and the Levanter crew,” said Soobin gesturing to the group who exchange greetings quickly.

“You’re a lot smaller than I was expecting,” said Jungkook surprised. “That’s cool though.” He paused frowning.

“Minho-yah?” he asked and Minho turned away from where he was talking to Yeosang to look and visibly startled.

“Hyung?” he asked. “Wait how are you with Epiphany? I thought they didn’t go to auctions.”

“Uh they don’t? It’s a long story. How are you with Levanter? Did you hunt down the British trader that kidnapped you in India,” said Jungkook surprised.

“It’s also a long story,” said Minho smiling slightly and Chan’s eyes darted down to Jungkook’s wrist where he was obviously scarred though Chan saw no numbers. His heart sank slightly, Jungkook was like Minho then his number branded into his hip bone. Maybe Captain Kim was so willing to welcome the eight of them into the alliance for more than one reason then. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the Epiphany so maybe their crew was built similarly to his own. He would ask Soobin later as the biggest of the British Alliances called the meeting to order and the tavern fell quiet around them. At the opposite end of the large table that every Alliance had gathered around near where the British Alliance was stood a man decked out in British Navy uniform stood up and looked over the gathered crews of pirates with distaste. What could a British Navy Commodore be doing at a pirate meeting? It could only mean bad things were on the horizon and Chan was glad that he had crews he trusted around them and a table between his crew and the British Alliance across from them. Especially since behind him he heard Seungmin gasp raggedly, Seungmin knew that Commodore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. i'm aware that it has been quite some time since this was updated. i'd like to apologize for both school and work getting in the way and working against my short attention span...this fic has been giving me a time y'all. but i've figured out the direction i'm going with it now so here we are. but it did get way way longer than i was expecting it to and i debated making it two separate fics and then decided i didn't want to have to tag all those groups again so it will be chaptered :D two chapters is the plan and chapter two will not take two months to be written i'm hoping to have it done by the end of the week but i promise nothing lol 
> 
> is this edited you ask??? ha i laugh at the thought...would i actually post something that's already been edited? you have far too much faith in me if you still hope that this might be edited 
> 
> also i'm sure you can tell by the title but i did decide to stick with levanter lyrics for this fic after all. i don't really have a reason i was just like okay i need a title and here is where we ended up
> 
> i have one week of freedom before my last semester of college starts and i'm just not ready for that. other life updates include the fact that my phone decided to just break and now i'm waiting on a new one to arrive and that's just the worst. holidays happened so merry happy everything that happens in december i hope everyone had a good time or at the very least not a terrible time and i love you all. happy new year. we've made it all the way through 2020 yay! 
> 
> i promise the next chapter won't take nearly as long to write because i've finally figured out what i'm doing with this fic XD 
> 
> thank you for reading i love you all!!!! ♡♡♡♡


	2. the chapter title? oh right. that chapter title. the second chapter title. the second chapter's title. this chapter title?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a meeting and a fight and an adventure on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here we are. this is a little bit shorter than the last chapter but it's still a decent length 
> 
> no new warnings i think 
> 
> enjoy :)

Chan was glad he had a crew as good as the one he had because it meant he didn’t have to worry about Seungmin because Changbin was already on top of making sure he was okay and had a hand on his elbow before Chan could even do more than glance back. Seungmin nodded when Chan made eye contact with him so Chan knew he was okay and Chan could turn back and focus on the meeting. The Navy Commodore stood up and looked over the pirates judgingly.

“ _As Captain Bernard so helpfully mentioned. I am Commodore Allen Harrison from the British Navy. I have asked that this meeting be called in order to prevent rumors from spreading and in order to give all of you a choice and a warning. In light of recent events the British government has chosen to wage war against the crime of piracy. Pirates that turn themselves in will be given the option to work as apprentices or low level sailors for the Navy. Pirates that are hunted down will hang at the end of a noose as the traditional crime for piracy dictates. In the next several weeks the British Navy will be out in full force in order to subdue piracy. This will not be allowed to continue._ ” The room is quiet for a bit at this declaration. In the past the British Navy had been too busy helping take over land as colonies to focus completely on pirates and had already been a pest, to have the full force of the British Navy focused on piracy wasn’t good.

“ _Why now?_ ” asked Namjoon frowning. “ _Our numbers are not greater than before nothing new is being done. What events are you meaning?_ ”

“ _The events involving the Lady Marietta in Kochi, India for one. An innocent trade ship was completely wiped out and goods were stolen. The Lady Marietta was one of the most important trade ships for international goods coming to Britain and was quite prominent. The British Empire does not appreciate the gall of the crews that wiped it out._ ” stated the Commodore and the Captain of Medusa looked back at Taeyong.

“It was that important?” he asked and Taeyong shrugged.

“Just a fucking slave ship,” said Taeyong gesturing. “Besides we didn’t take the crew we just sank the ship. Levanter took the crew.” He gestured to the left towards where Chan was standing and the Medusa looked over at their group.

“This is because of eight boys? That’s ridiculous. The British are stupid,” muttered the Medusa captain rolling his eyes and then turning back to the conversation at hand.

“ _Are you quite done?_ ” asked Commodore Harrison raising an eyebrow. The Medusa captain gestured for him to continue.

“ _Believe it or not I do have better things to be doing than listening to some Brit go on a power trip,_ ” he stated, “ _if you would wrap this up that’d be great._ ”

“ _Chinese pirates are the worst,_ ” muttered Commodore Harrison scowling.

“ _We’re Korean,_ ” said the Medusa captain completely deadpan. “ _The Chinese Alliances are stood next to you._ ” The British Commodore said nothing in response instead choosing to continue as if the Medusa captain had said nothing.

“ _The death of the crew of the Lady Marietta was only the last stone to sway the crown to the side of Governor Kim,_ ” said the Commodore and Chan knew without having to ask that somehow this was all tied to Seungmin.

“ _A few years back a ship was attacked in the night by two pirate crews. Governor Kim’s son was on that ship and was kidnapped. Instead of ever receiving a ransom as was expected the pirates tortured and slaughtered him. Skye Kim wasn’t a ranked officer, he had no reason for any pirates to have tortured him like that,_ ” said the British Commodore. “ _Governor Kim was devastated as I’m sure you understand. Skye was his only son and just a boy. Since that night Governor Kim has been petitioning for action to be taken against piracy to keep other families from losing their sons for no reason._ ”

“ _So instead of just finding the crews that did it you’re going to kill all of us,_ ” said a pirate with a British accent that had an enormous beard. Edmund Abbot if Chan had to guess though most of the legendary European pirates hardly held up to their stories.

“ _Do you even know what ship it was that took him?_ ” asked a French pirate slapping a palm against the table and leaning forward.

“ _The Twilight,_ ” started Commodore Harrison which sent the majority of the Korean pirates into an uproar.

“ _The fuck is wrong with you?_ ” yelled Seungcheol pushing through the crowd so his crew was closer to the front. “ _The Twilight are kids. They’re younger than we are and we’re kids._ ”

“ _And the Levanter,_ ” said Commodore Harrison more loudly. “ _And the Levanter has a reputation for stealing kids and leaving a wake of destruction in their path._ ”

“ _Oh is that what gets back to the shore?_ ” asked Namjoon rolling his eyes.

“ _Captain Bang didn’t torture and kill some British kid,_ ” said Taeyong shouldering his way through the older captains in his alliance so he was stood right at the edge of the table. “ _He doesn’t take prisoners and he definitely didn’t kill some navy brat._ ”

“ _And how would you know that?_ ” asked Commodore Harrison sneering.

“ _Because he didn’t kill me, asshole,_ ” called Mark and then several other pirates around the room were chiming in saying the same thing. Commodore Harrison rolled his eyes.

“ _Regardless Governor Kim’s son is dead and was last seen with the Levanter. Who are pirates, pirates that have been hunting and destroying trade ships specifically British ones in mass,_ ” stated Commodore Harrison. “ _The British government has agreed to Governor Kim’s plan to destroy piracy for good. I have delivered my message you would be wise to turn yourselves in. If you don’t there is no where to hide from us._ ” The British soldiers started out of the tavern and JB glanced back at where Chan was still standing in the front of his crew.

“Channie you’ve not got a kid called Sky, right?” asked Jaebum raising an eyebrow.

“Nope,” said Chan shaking his head knowing full well that was the British name that Seungmin’s dad had preferred. “The only Kim we have is Seungminnie.” Commodore Harrison evidently picked up on the familiar name as he paused to look in their direction and apparently saw Seungmin through the crowd as he turned white as a sheet.

“ _You’re supposed to be dead._ ” He stated looking at Seungmin who hesitated a split second before turning to face him fully.

“ _Yeah and it was on dad’s orders. So whatever this hunt you have going on isn’t because of me,_ ” said Seungmin.

“ _I was at the funeral. You’re dead. Your father was devastated,_ ” said Commodore Harrison. “ _Is this the crew that kidnapped you._ ”

“ _I’m pretty sure willingly walking off one ship and onto the other is deserting not kidnapping,_ ” said Seungmin shrugging. “ _And given that it was never in my father’s plans to have me come home from that stupid ship, you’re more than welcome to tell him to go to hell for me._ ”

“ _Is this some misguided teenage rebellion? This is ridiculous. You’re breaking your father’s heart, come home immediately,_ ” insisted Commodore Harrison stepping forward. Hyunjin and Felix both moved to be slightly in front of Seungmin but didn’t block him when Seungmin caught Felix’s elbow so he didn’t go any further.

“He’s not going to hurt me,” said Seungmin shaking his head. “He’s just a jerk. _I’m not coming back._ ”

“ _Very well we will return you ourselves,_ ” said Harrison and Felix shook Seungmin’s hand off his elbow to step forward so he was planted between the Commodore and Seungmin.

“ _Felix,_ ” complained Seungmin rolling his eyes.

“ _He’s not going with you, mate, so keep moving,_ ” said Felix pointedly. Harrison sneered at him but didn’t look ready to start a fight when surrounded by pirates.

“ _Wait this entire hunt the British has begun is because of one kid? That kid? Send him home,_ ” said one of the French pirates. “ _No one wishes for the Levanter to be here anyway._ ”

“ _We do,_ ” said Taeyong raising an eyebrow, Jihyo and Jaebum agreeing.

“ _Hmm, we like them here as well,_ ” said G Dragon cocking his head, “ _so you can be angry about Aucoin somewhere else._ ”

“You really do have a lot of friends,” muttered Beomgyu surprised.

“ _Skye, this is ridiculous,_ ” said Harrison.

“ _My name is Seungmin it has always been Seungmin it will continue to be Seungmin. There was a time that my father agreed to that name, commodore. I’ve seen the trade books I’ve seen the reports at home look and do the math and tell me what all that extra money is for. If the British government wants to continue taking part in an enormous slave trade around the world I want no part of it. And my father knows full well I’m not dead because if I were I’d be haunting him,_ ” stated Seungmin, “ _give him a message for me, please?_ ” That said Seungmin flipped him off and Commodore Harrison seemed to take a bracing breath as he weighed his options before nodding once.

“ _Very well. If this is how you choose to waste your potential then so be it. I hope you consider the government’s offer as I would hate to be the one to order your hanging,_ ” said Commodore Harrison before turning around and marching his soldiers out of the tavern and down to their ship. The room is quiet for a few minutes after that before exploding into noise.

“ _Silence!_ ” yelled Abbot over the noise to bring everyone to order. “ _If the crown wishes to wage a war we must be prepared. What are our options?_ ”

“ _Taking the deal is giving up our freedom and everything piracy stands for,_ ” stated one of the captains.

“ _But can we take the full force of the British Empire combined with their allies from other nations?_ ” asked one of the Spanish pirates. “ _What is better living or dying? That is what we’re asking._ ”

“ _You say that like existing as pirates has not been a fight against each of our governments from day one,_ ” said one of the Japanese captains shaking his head. “ _The only difference is a larger scale._ ”

“ _We won’t be turning ourselves over and certainly not to the British. The Korean government has not agreed to help the British and neither has the Chinese,_ ” said G Dragon shaking his head.

“ _Yes, he is right,_ ” said one of the Chinese captains in agreement. “ _Our governments are at odds with the British Empire. You turning yourselves in is taking the deal for us it would be torture and then death either way._ ”

“China’s at war with Britian?” asked Jeongin quietly.

“Yeah, have been for a while now too,” said Seungmin nodding. “The Opium War.”

“They’re right the Chinese pirates can’t take the deal if they end up with the British and in all honesty probably neither can any of the rest of us. You heard that commodore earlier he thought the Medusa was Chinese.” said Hyunjin nodding. “We’ll have to fight either way. They’re not debating whether or not everyone is fighting they’re debating whether or not they’re going to help us.”

“Do we need them?” asked Felix frowning. “Sure the European pirates act like they’re God’s gift to piracy but everyone knows they’re not nearly as strong as the rest of us.”’

“Technically no, but a lot of the British pirates work under the Queen’s law already so they’ll probably get off pretty close to free if they take the deal,” pointed out Seungmin, “it’s why the French hate them so much, the Queen pays a lot of the British pirates to undermine the French and Spanish traders and pirates alike.”

“ _If you will be turning yourselves in or attempting to hide leave now. Let’s thin out the crowd some,_ ” said one of the Chinese captains. The tavern emptied slightly and the majority of the French alliances and quite a few of the British ones left as well.

“ _We need a plan,_ ” said Abbot leaning forward across the table. “ _If we are to take on the majority of the world’s governments and the British Empire we will need to be sneaky and work together. They out number us by the hundreds. Fear and stealth is going to be our best option._ ”

“ _Perhaps magic is a solution we should consider,_ ” stated the Spanish pirate that had called to them earlier. “ _My crew has a witch on board that is willing to fight. And I know there are several crews here as well with witches._ ”

“ _Yes we have heard that the Twilight has a witch as well as Whiplash,_ ” said one of the Chinese captains looking to first Hongjoong and then Taeyong.

“ _Our witch has non-combative magic, he doesn’t fight,_ ” said Taeyong shaking his head.

“ _My magic will be more than enough surely,_ ” said Abbot leaning forward visibly rustling his beard and then snapping his fingers, flames bursting above them. Several crews jumped back frightened.

“ _Flash paper and smoke is not magic,_ ” said JB rolling his eyes.

“ _You wouldn’t know magic if it hit you in the face, boy, don’t question your betters,_ ” said Abbot and Sana stepped forward with a sneer.

“ _Idiot. That is not magic. This is magic,_ ” she stated before swiping a palm out across the table flames dancing across it.

“ _You will be hard pressed to find a witch among these crews willing to follow your orders,_ ” said Namjoon shaking his head. “ _What is your plan anyway? We don’t know their plans, there’s no way to plan against them if we don’t know their move._ ”

“Shouldn’t the leaders of the Alliances be here for this?” asked Hongjoon looking to Chan who shrugged.

“The leaders were already informed by everyone and told their representative crews,” said Soobin shaking his head. “They’re not here because the Navy was going to be here and apparently that’s too dangerous, the meeting is only to inform everyone else and the stragglers and come to a firmer decision.”

“The Alliances were supposed to be crews working together against rivals and governments alike, but it hasn’t been that way in years and years now. The current leaders of the Alliances are more controlling than helpful,” explained Chan quietly to Hongjoong. “I don’t know much about BigHit but the others are like that.”

“ _Are you suggesting we sneak into the governor’s fortress to retrieve his plans?_ ” asked one of the Spanish pirates raising an eyebrow at Namjoon. Which wasn’t a bad idea if you had a crew that knew what they were doing, but given the majority of these crews were useless at both sneaking and gathering information it was a terrible plan that would end in the death of an entire crew. Still it was an idea for later.

“ _That’s not what we’re suggesting at all,_ ” said JB shaking his head.

“ _It was a little what I was suggesting,_ ” said Namjoon turning to him surprised. “You have a better plan?” JB’s eyes landed on Chan in the crowd which was weird, Chan wasn’t part of JYP what would he have to say to him. For a split second he looked apologetic.

“ _Levanter has a prophet,_ ” he stated and Chan’s blood ran cold and he prayed that none of the boys reacted. If they gave away Jisung they might not make it out of here without a hell of a fight.

“ _I’m sorry what?_ ” asked Chan, “ _surely I didn’t hear you right._ ”

“ _I knew that boy looked familiar,_ ” said one of the Spanish pirates eyeing Jisung, “ _hijo del diablo._ ” There was no helping it now, Jisung was in danger and Chan had to make sure all of them made it out of this tavern in the next few minutes.

“ _Jisung can see what they’re planning and what we should do to prevent it,_ ” said JB nodding and Chan scanned the group and realized then that Mark wasn’t there, behind JB BamBam looked horrified which meant the captain hadn’t shared his plan with the crew.

“ _No he can’t and he won’t,_ ” said Chan scowling at him. “I didn’t do this to you? What are you doing?”

“He has to, we need to know what’s happening, Chan. The other option is to go into hiding,” said JB shaking his head. “I’m sorry but we need that information. _He can and he will._ ”

“ _He always did in Bahia de la Rosa, we just don’t give the demon boy a choice,_ ” said one of the Spanish pirates and Jisung took a step back hand reaching for Chan’s sash out of habit, an instinctual reaction that hadn’t resurfaced since Jisung had stopped being afraid all the time. Chan felt the Twilight crew adjust, thinning out to cover more ground and get as much of their crew encircled as they could, on the other side Crown did the same and Chan glanced to both sides surprised when both younger captains made determined eye contact with him, they were standing with Levanter.

“ _Hannie, we need that information,_ ” said JB.

“Over my dead body,” snapped Chan, “ _damn the code and damn the rules, if you try to hurt what’s mine I will kill you._ ”

“Hyung, what are you doing? I’m not fighting Channie,” hissed BamBam worriedly. “I won’t do it.”

“I had to,” hissed Jaebum shaking his head, “just stay out of it if it comes to that.” One of the Spanish crews apparently decided they’d had enough of this and advanced forward.

“ _We’ll get him ourselves. What’s a boy like you going to do about it?_ ” asked the captain and Chan turned to face him his crew parting to let him through and to the other three groups surprise the Itzy girls shifted to add another layer of protection to the back of the group. The captain pointed his pistol at Chan who didn’t pull his weapon just took a deep breath and for a moment his eyes blinked blue. Then ozone crackled in the air and he breathed in once and out and shoved. The entire Spanish crew toppled backwards hard enough to knock into the wall several yards behind them.

“ _Anyone else want a turn? Or do we need to have another example of what real magic looks like?_ ” asked Chan turning to scan the rest of the room. No one moved.

“ _Chan,_ ” started JB. “ _Now is not the time to walk out on all of this._ ” Chan laughed.

“ _We don’t need the Alliances. We’re pirates for the freedom of it and all you want to do is take that. We’ll fight this war ourselves,_ ” stated Chan.

“ _You and what army?_ ” asked Abbot baffled. Taeyong looked over his group and shrugged.

“ _We’re an army, so us I suppose._ Hyung, please give SM-ssi our formal apology as we will not be continuing to take part in this nonsense,” said Taeyong turning to the Medusa captain and then bowing. He turned back once more and gestured for his crew to leave.

“ _After you, Bang,_ ” stated Taeyong and the younger crews hurried to head towards the door. The smaller crews that were between them and the door parted quickly to let them through not wanting to face whatever magic Chan had used against the Spanish crew. Crown stepped through the doorway first followed by Levanter, Twilight and Itzy quickly behind them and Whiplash leaving last, making sure no one would follow. Crown hesitated a moment once they were outside.

“To the dock, Soobinnie, we’ll talk once we’re out of this port,” stated Chan and Soobin nodded leading his crew down to the dock quickly. Footsteps sounded behind them as they neared the port and Whiplash turned to look, blocking the pirate running towards them.

“Chan!” called Joshua trying to get his attention. Seungkwan and Dino were steps behind him, both of them hadn’t been in the meeting.

“What?” asked Chan turning back to look at the three Fearless pirates.

“Head to Jacmel we’ll meet you there. We’re coming to find you after the meeting. Cheollie-hyung and the others stayed to hear what the Alliances plans were. You’re going to need an insider on the Alliance if you’re going against them,” said Joshua quickly. Chan nodded.

“Then you should go before it raises suspicion,” he pointed out and Joshua agreed the three of them turning once more and heading off back through Tortuga, probably to meet up with the rest of the crew that hadn’t been in the meeting again.

“You trust them?” asked Ten looking at Chan as they started towards the dock once more.

“I don’t know them,” said Chan shrugging, “they seem alright. Hongjoong-ah trusts them and that’s good enough for me.”

“Aren’t they mostly ex-Navy?” asked one of the Dalla girls. “Doesn’t that say something about their ability to be loyal to a cause?”

“Not at all,” said Mark shaking his head. “That’s bullshit that the alliances use to gatekeep. They just don’t like that the ships that are mostly ex-Navy tend to fair better against current Navy because they have a better idea of how they work.” The Dalla Captain nodded.

“Then we wait for them in Haiti?” asked Soobin as they reached the dock.

“Yes,” said Chan, “worse case scenario it’s the five of us against them, but it shouldn’t come to that.”

“What about after?” asked Hongjoong. “We need more of a plan than wait to hear what the alliances are doing.” Chan looked to Seungmin who smirked.

“There are tunnels that run from the cliffs to the inside of the fort,” he said. “Getting the Navy’s plans for this will be easy if we don’t draw attention to ourselves.”

“Then after we sail for Fort Gales,” said Chan nodding. “We have a war to win.” The crews split up to their separate ships as they reached the docks and turned their sails towards Haiti. It’s quiet on ship as they work until Tortuga is long out of sight on the horizon.

“Do you think Mark-hyung is okay?” asked Jisung quietly breaking the silence.

“I don’t know,” said Chan, “he wasn’t with Eclipse, I don’t know if that meant he stayed with the ship or if it meant something had happened. It doesn’t make sense. Why would he have done that? Mark wouldn’t have let that happen. BamBam obviously had no idea and the others looked surprised too.”

“Maybe Mark-hyung was in danger and JB-hyung did it to keep him safe,” said Jisung hesitantly trying to rationalize the betrayal. “You would make that call. If it was between him and me, you’d have chosen to expose his secret rather than mine.”

“We don’t know what happened to Mark-hyung if anything did,” said Chan, “as it stands no one is alone with Eclipse pirates anymore, any of them.”

“What about your brother?” asked Minho surprised and Chan just shook his head.

“All I know right now is that their crew did their best to hurt ours, knowing that it would mean we would fight it and probably die. They didn’t know that the others would take our side. Hell, I didn’t know that. I’m more than a little stunned that Whiplash left their Alliance, though it’s probably been a long time coming. They’ve never really liked their Alliance in the first place, I guess we were the final straw to tip that scale. But since all we know is that Captain Lim tried to get us killed in that meeting, no one is going to be anywhere near any of the Eclipse crew on their own. And on top of that the majority of the pirates in the world know about the Prophet, the Witch, the Merman, and the Governor’s son at this point, no one goes anywhere without at least two others with them and one of the two has to be from us.” The others agree quickly at that, no one wanting to get caught by themselves now that the pirates and the military alike had a reason to be after them.

“Do you think others will break away from their alliances like Whiplash did?” asked Changbin curiously.

“Probably not yet. When we’re successful and prove that you don’t need an Alliance to be great and to make it on the seas I think several crews will leave at that point,” said Chan nodding. “But not yet. At this point if they’re not with us in Jacmel in the morning trust none of them. And even then be careful, the ones that walked out of the meeting made a statement that none of the others did, they can’t go back now but any other crew could.” 

“Even the Fearless?” asked Felix hesitantly and Chan nodded.

“I’m not telling you not be friends with them, Lix,” said Chan, “just be careful. I don’t know them hardly at all and I trust Hongjoong’s opinion of them but I thought we could trust Eclipse too, so just be careful.” Felix nodded.

“I just don’t want to lose Hao-hyung, I only just got him back,” said Felix.

“I know and you won’t,” said Chan, “I think that they’re with us, I don’t think they’ll betray the rest of us, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Hey, Minho-hyung, I didn’t know you knew any of the Epiphany crew,” said Hyunjin turning to look at Minho.

“Oh, neither did I,” said Minho nodding. “Jungkook-hyung and I met a long time ago. You think Epiphany is good for him, right? They’re not a crew that would’ve bought him and be using him?”

“I don’t think so,” said Chan frowning. “I don’t know any of them so I can’t really say, but I don’t think it would make any sense with what we know of Crown.”

“I’d have liked to know how he ended up with them,” said Minho, “but knowing he’s okay will have to be enough. I don’t think either of us thought the other would live this long.” Chan would have liked to reassure Minho that he’d have a chance to talk to Jungkook again but Chan didn’t know. There wasn’t a high chance that Epiphany would be leaving their Alliance any time soon. The deck fell quiet once more as they continued to sail for Jacmel.

The arrival of the five of them in Jacmel was quiet as the sun had begun to set low over the horizon. None of them had their flags up and had all chosen to be near each other and away in a corner of the dock, it would be best if they didn’t attract much attention. Several of the Whiplash pirates departed from their ship and headed into town but otherwise no one budged. A foreboding silence settled over the ships as they waited in anticipation for whatever came next. Chan attempted to send the crew to bed but no one slept, one by one coming back to join him at the helm, watching the horizon waiting to see who would join them by morning. A ship with all black sails arrived first docking near the group of them, but no one came off the ship, they just joined the others, waiting. Two more ships arrived as the dawn neared and then finally as the sun broke over the horizon the Fearless docked in Jacmel.

“Alright,” said Chan as the Fearless stepped off their ship and onto the dock. “Let’s get this over with.” The eight of them headed down onto the dock, the other groups from the ships joining quickly. Taeyong leaned over the side of his ship watching as the other crews gathered.

“It seems we have the largest ship among us, so if no one is opposed let’s do this on our deck,” he called. Chan agreed first and led the Levanter up to Whiplash’s deck. The other two ships that were captained by Whiplash crew members apparently had already spent the night on the deck of the Whiplash as both the Way crew and Dream crew were present on deck. Twilight and Crown followed quickly the other crews slowly gathering on the deck of the Whiplash.

“Alright, Chan, this is your deal, lead the meeting,” said Taeyong gesturing and Chan nodded stepping forward so he was in the center of the group of crews gathered.

“Okay, Seungcheol-hyung, Joshua-hyung said you would have information,” said Chan.

“Yeah, we stayed the whole way through the meeting,” said Seungcheol nodding. “After you all left the Alliances floundered. They don’t know what they’re doing now. Epiphany wanted to raid the fort to try and get information on the Navy’s plans but the other crews shot that down quickly. They’re going to station crews at the bigger pirate towns throughout the world and the major trade routes instead and wait and see how the Navy plans to proceed. They’re hoping to catch you all at the same time as they’ve marked all your crews as rogue now, making you enemies to all the Alliances. Their plan at the moment is to stick together and wait and see how this plays out. They’re hoping that the Navy takes out the crews without an Alliance first and the smaller ones before coming for them.”

“That’s a terrible plan,” muttered Chan, “all that does is leave them with fewer people to help them.”

“It’s also why some of the others came along,” said Seungcheol gesturing to the three other ships that had come. “The smaller crews within the Alliances or the bigger ones without the Alliances protection are going to be screwed over. I’d expect more and more crews are going to take your side when they realize that. The Alliances are planning to fuck over the rest of us in order to keep themselves afloat.”

“Seems about right,” said Taeyong shrugging.

“I have information you might like as well,” stated a girl stepping forward. “I’m Jennie, the four of us are the Lovesick crew. We were part of the YG Alliance.” Chan nodded encouragingly and she continued.

“The Eve isn’t going to fight,” she said.

“What?” asked Ten baffled. “They’re one of the stronger ones and they aren’t going to turn themselves in.”

“They’ve been planning to leave the Alliance for the past two years,” said Jennie nodding, “they’ve been building a place to go to quietly for the past couple years. It won’t be easy to get to, but any crew that knows how to get there will be safe there and welcome. GD-oppa told us where it was and we’re allowed to share it with all of you. Originally it was supposed to be only Levanter, but GD-oppa told us to tell any of you that sided with them when we left after the meeting.”

“Medusa’s been considering that too,” said Taeyong hesitantly, “have they considered talking to each other?” Jennie laughed.

“That would be the day wouldn’t it?” she said. “If we can get word to both of them we’ll suggest it but they won’t do it on their own.” Taeyong nodded.

“It’s worth a try. If both of them work together it’ll be stronger than if they don’t,” he pointed out.

“Do you two have anything to add before we move on?” asked Chan looking to the other two crews that had joined them.

“We’re supposed to give you a message from Shadow and Eclipse,” said one of the captains stepping forward. “We’re from Zombie, we’ve been part of JYP awhile but we’re a small crew so we don’t hold much power in the actual alliance. Shadow said to tell you they’re waiting to see how this goes but to expect them to join you soon, they don’t believe that the Alliances will do well against this. Eclipse sent you a letter, I don’t know what’s in it and I really don’t care. Captain Lim shouldn’t have done that feel free to toss it, I just promised I’d give it to you.” Chan took the letter from him and shoved it into one of his pockets.

“Anything for you?” he asked turning to the last one.

“Our brother ship may join us soon,” said one of the Valkyrie pirates, “we’re not tied to alliances we’re too new as pirates. Several of the other crews not tied to any alliances mentioned they were going to consider joining you. They want to see how it goes first.” Chan nodded.

“What now?” asked Hongjoong.

“We’re going to need to split up,” said Chan, “since there are several governments agreeing on this we’ll need to make sure that we cover our bases and get as many of the military information as we can. We’re not sitting and taking this but we’re going to have to be smart about this. The Navy outnumbers the pirates by hundreds, they outnumber us by far more. The Dutch military should be the weakest so we’ll send some of the smaller crews up there.”

“We’ll go,” said the Zombie captain.

“Yes and us,” said Dalla nodding. Chan nodded.

“Valkyrie, you go too,” said Chan and got agreement fast. “Remember stealth is the key here. You’re going to be in and out fast and quiet. Not only do we need to stay under the radar of the military but we need to stay under the radar of the Alliances. Any spike in activity and the Alliances will be after us for our information, we’re not giving it to them, they don’t need any more information to hold over the rest of us. One of the bigger crews needs to go to Spain.”

“Dibs,” said Taeyong nodding. “We’ll take it.”

“Alright,” agreed Chan nodding. “Fearless, you need to hit the American Forts, as many as possible. Twilight do you want France or Japan?”

“France,” said Hongjoong.

“We’ll take Japan,” said Jennie nodding. “We have friends there that will help.” Chan nodded.

“Dalla, Crown,” said Chan looking at the last two crews. “We need you to hit as many trade headquarters as you can in the next month, preferably working together.” Soobin nodded.

“If we stick together we can cover ground fast, Captain Choi,” said Yeji nodding. “Ryujin’s magic will make sailing faster than if we are separate.” Soobin agreed quickly.

“Sounds good,” he stated. “What about you, hyung?”

“We have a fort to hit,” said Chan glancing to Seungmin who grinned.

“By yourself?” asked Seungcheol.

“You can’t take out Fort Gales on your own,” said Jennie shaking her head. “That’s insane.”

“There are tunnels that run from the cliffs to the inside of the fort, directly to where we’re needing to go. They’re supposed to be an escape route, but they never counted on anyone outside the fort needing to get in without them knowing,” said Seungmin shrugging. “As long as we stay quiet, it’ll be easy.”

“Besides, we have a relative to haunt,” said Chan and Seungmin grinned brighter nodding.

“We meet up in a month,” said Chan, “when you finish your assignment get to the meeting place and wait there.”

“Where are we meeting?” asked Hongjoong.

“I believe Jennie-ssi has a place to share,” said Chan and Jennie nodded smiling and then pulling out a map to show the route to the safe haven that Ego had been building.

“Alright, let’s set off,” said Chan nodding once everyone had been informed. “We have a war to win.” The crews broke apart quickly all headed to their ships and one by one each ship set off in their intended direction. The Levanter departing last watching the others disappear on the horizon.

“We can do this, right, hyung?” asked Seungmin hesitantly eyes on the horizon.

“We have to try,” said Chan nodding. “It doesn’t matter if we can or not. If we don’t try there is no point to having gotten here in the first place. Without freedom the Levanter is nothing and so are the rest of them. That’s why they’re all here. There are things worth fighting over and this is one of them. Why do you think the Navy is so set in destroying us?”

“Power.”

“And as long as there are those that the power they hold doesn’t effect did they ever truly have that power to begin with? So it doesn’t matter if we can do this or not, Seungmin-ah, what matters is we tried in the first place. What is the sea without freedom and adventure? That’s all this is, another adventure to sail for. Let’s enjoy it,” said Chan nodding.

“You’re not scared?” asked Seungmin turning away from the horizon to look at his captain.

“Of death? No, I suppose not. Why fear what is inevitable anyway? This is something that needs to be done if it is the last thing we do then at least we did it together,” said Chan nodding. “And the wind blows with us, as long as the wind still moves with us and not against us I believe we can do anything we are faced with.” Seungmin nodded.

“Alright,” he said, “then let’s fight.” He turned back to head to the deck and help with the sails climbing up into the rigging next to Jisung. Chan turned his gaze back to the horizon where the others had disappeared and felt the wind rush past him catching in their sails and pulling them out to sea, towards an unknown fate and an adventure that may take everything they had, or it may give them everything the ocean could offer. Only time would tell, there was a letter burning a hole in his pocket but it was a letter Chan wasn’t ready to read. He didn’t need to know the explanation yet, he wasn’t ready to acknowledge and understand all that had happened, but he would read it in a few days. Fsor now, Chan had the Levanter under his feet, his crew before him, and an adventure to chase. What more was there? They would face what was coming and would face it together. Chan wasn’t a seer, he wasn’t a prophet, but he could feel in his gut that despite the unknown before them this wasn’t to be the Levanter’s last adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i've returned as promised and it has not been two months this time XD 
> 
> first things first   
> i'm sorry okay. eclipse had their reasons the letter will be read just try not to hate them too much. i mean they're pirates so they aren't supposed to be good. but still there's a reason i promise 
> 
> secondly i'm sure this is a mess as far as spelling and making sense in places because i woke up sick the day after i posted the first chapter and i've been writing this in between my headache being too bad to try and write but the only other thing to do right now is watch netflix and i'd rather be writing. though now i'm almost done with my show so there's that. 
> 
> and lastly there will be more fics soon in this story line. they will all be stray kids focused despite the different crews joining them here and splitting up. i've got a few more fics for this storyline planned and i'm working on ideas for ateez and nct in this series, though both of those will probably be origin of crew only rather than origin and whatever you want to call this XD 
> 
> so to summarize. eclipse has a reason. i'm sick so don't judge how bad some of my wording is. more to come. ateez and nct pirates will happen eventually. and i think that's all the important stuff? oh right seungmin's dad will be in the next one so that'll be fun :) 
> 
> thank you for reading i love you all!!! ♡♡♡♡♡

**Author's Note:**

> ♡♡♡♡


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